The Sabarmati Report review: a ramblingly talkative treachery

The Sabarmati Report review: a ramblingly talkative treachery

What: ‘The Sabarmati Report’ – presented by Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures, starring Vikrant Massey in lead, the touted ‘saachai’ based on the horrifically inhuman Godhra train burning incident of 27 February 2002, involving Sabarmati Express train is a rambling treachery done by cashing the incident in the name of cinema.

The Sabarmati Report movie synopsis

On February 27, 2002, Sabarmati Express at Godhra station caught fire, two coaches S6 and S7 carrying karsevaks who were returning from a yagna from Ayodhya got charged to death. The death of these fifty-nine karsevaks that included women and children shook the nation that challenged the country’s social and political fabric.

Two committees – the on member Bannerjee commission instituted by the government in 2004 came to a conclusion that it was an accident.

In September 2008, The Nanavati-Mehta commission appointed by the state government, concluded that the burning of the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was a "planned conspiracy’.

Vikrant Massey plays a ‘Hindi reporter’ Samar Kumar who leaves his ‘film’ beat and joins the high-profile English-speaking journalist Manika Rajpurohit (Riddhi Dogra) to report the Godhra incident from ‘Ground Zero’. Both come to a conclusion that ‘aag lagi nahi, lagwaai gayi thi’. The news channel they work for EBT News under political pressure manipulates the truth in favor of that party. Samar Kumar is shocked and when he raises his voice, he gets thrown out from the channel. The dejected, devastated, betrayed Samar immerses himself in alcohol and survives by doing odd dubbings.

After few years, an honest intern from EBT News which has now become a big force in television journalism, Amrita Gill (Raashii Khanna) joins Manika’s team. Raashii is an ardent admirer of Manika and an unfavorable incident in Gujarat, makes Raashii join hands with Samar and visit Godhra to find out about the victims of that train burning incident and what actually happened.

The Sabarmati Report movie review

Directed by Dheeraj Sarna (Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki fame writer) who replaced ‘Grahan’ web series fame Ranjan Chandel due to creative differences and written for screen by Arjun Bhandegaonkar, Avinash Singh Tomar and Vipin Agnihotri, ‘The Sabarmati Report’ is a completely confused film that loses its core. Instead of focusing on the ‘Godhra’ conspiracy and what followed, the movie is more bothered about the ethics in journalism and while doing so desires to maintain a balance between communities and is afraid to take names, bring the ‘truth’, talk about the political ideologies in this touted ‘sach ka samna’ on screen.

And why so so ordinary Hindi by a ‘Hindi journalist’ who at some point utters a line “ fafda is good for phepada’. Nahi hua ‘visthapit’.      

On 19, July 2024 ‘Accident or Conspiracy: Godhra’ directed by M.K. Shivaaksh starring Ranvir Shorey and Manoj Joshi based on the same topic got released and it was a much better film than this one.

Performance

Vikrant Massey, Raashii Khanna and Riddhi Dogra give decent performance, nothing much to shout about. However, the physical appearance of the ladies hardly changes in this film which travels from 2002 to 2017, Vikrant’s hair style only changes, body language remains the same – strange.

 

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