15 November,2024 07:33 AM IST | Mumbai | Priyanka Sharma
A still from The Sabarmati Report
India is now Bharat. Hindi is the country's new identity. Hindu-Muslim... Just some of the words and sentences that make up the countless WhatsApp forwards that greet us on a regular basis, especially if we are part of those unfortunate society and office groups. Imagine these opinions, often passed as truth, fleshed out into a screenplay, and you get The Sabarmati Report.
Vikrant Massey, Raashii Khanna, and Ridhi Dogra lead this drama that claims to open our eyes to the truth that has remained invisible for the last 22 years. Dheeraj Sarna has helmed the film that has Ektaa R Kapoor as one of its producers. The film revisits the 2002 Sabarmati Express fire tragedy that led to the death of 59 passengers. Sarna designs the film as an investigation into the incident as well as an exhausting takedown of the Indian media. Dogra is a star reporter of a fictional channel, EBT News, who, along with cameraperson (Massey), goes to Godhra, Gujarat, to cover the burning of two bogies of the Sabarmati Express. On the basis of their ground reporting, including interactions with people present at the site, both of them are led to believe that what is being called an accident is a conspiracy.
But after a call from her editor, Dogra's Manika Rajpurohit chooses to call it an accident, leaving Massey's Samar Kumar shocked. He then speaks to the victims and their families, and tapes their statements. Contrary to his hope, the office upholds the version of the English-speaking Rajpurohit. Kumar is fired. His life derails in the most typical style - girlfriend breaks up with him, no one hires him, and he takes to alcohol. Five years later, a meeting with a young reporter, Amrita Gill (Khanna), brings him another chance at unravelling the truth and presenting it to the country. The two revisit Godhra and begin their investigation.
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It's a struggle to write about The Sabarmati Report because for much of the film, we were appalled, disgusted, and shocked at how casually the makers used bigotry to take the narrative forward. At the same time, they make the film wear the veil of truth-finding and nationalism. A film, however complex, can be reviewed, but propaganda masked as art? No thanks.
