If I downed a tequila shot every time someone uttered “sarzameen” in, well, Sarzameen, I would be drunk till the time Ibrahim Ali Khan became a good actor. Which, going by how things stand at the moment, is a ‘naadaan’ (iyan) thought. To be fair, Ibrahim does show some improvement from his debut a few months ago — which was more of a face-meets-palm moment than a jaw-drops-to-floor experience for we the viewers — but Sarzameen, now streaming on JioHotstar, is such a patience-testing assault-on-the-eardrums kind of film that you end up feeling that Saif Ali Khan’s son — along with principal actors Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kajol (credited as Kajol Devgan here) — is the one who has got the raw end of the stick.

Sarzameen — though set in the familiar territory of Kashmir-based insurgency and the tense battle in the valley between the Indian Army and state-sponsored terrorism — could have made for a riveting watch, at least given the names involved. Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions is the producer, while Kayoze Irani — actor Boman Irani’s son — makes his directorial debut.

But Kayoze appears to have watched Mission Kashmir and Fanaa one too many times. Like both these films, Sarzameen features an angsty protagonist who is compelled by circumstances to go over to the dark side. Kajol, of course, starred in Fanaa as a hapless wife and mother who, ultimately, takes up the gun. We aren’t going to spoil it for you here, but let’s say the dramatic twist in Sarzameen involving a key character is far from rewarding.

Kajol plays Meher, whose husband Vijay Menon (Prithviraj Sukumaran) is an Armyman with an eye-on-the-fish-eye mantra — “Sarzameen ke salamati se badhkar mere liye kuch nahi hain”. A conscientious soldier but a strict father who himself has daddy issues, Vijay is embarrassed about his teenage son Harman, a nervous, stammering sort who is doted on by his mother but longs for his father’s approval.

Circumstances tear the family apart — brought on by Vijay’s vow to prioritise his duty to the country above everything else. But eight years later, Harman, long given up for dead, returns in the form of Ibrahim Ali Khan. Meher is overjoyed, but Vijay is in two minds — is Harman, now confident and strapping, as innocent as he seems or have his years spent in enemy territory compelled him (in a Nicholas Brody in Homeland kind of twist) to turn?

That, in itself, affords a premise ripe for an engaging face-off — both with words and weapons. But more than an action thriller with a dash of patriotism, Sarzameen is determined to be a melodramatic family film. Which isn’t a bad route to take, if only Kayoze didn’t lean so much towards an over-accentuating background score and a song to accompany every scene and situation, many of which play out in an overtly emotional rinse-repeat mode.

Sarzameen, scored by a battery of composers led by Vishal Mishra, has some deeply poignant numbers, but blaring them in every situation — family festivities to do-or-die gunbattle, an enemy-at-the-gates scene to a romantic moment — does a lot of disservice to both the film and its music. It almost feels as if its young director, unsure of the story at the core of his film and what he wants to do with it, uses songs as a crutch (and not a storytelling device) to fill in the blanks of this two-hour-plus film.

For a film that has a story and setting that demand that it be rooted in the real, Sarzameen has plot holes (or potholes, given what a rocky ride it turns out to be) that, given it has as many as four writers sharing story-screenplay-dialogue credits, is clearly a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. The twist in the tail is meant to be a pulling-the-rug-out-from-under-the-feet moment, but in the absence of solid context or ample reasoning, it seems inserted just for shock value. Which, to be honest, will make the viewer feel cheated.

In such a scenario, it is left to the actors to make the film semi-watchable. Both Prithviraj and Kajol are saddled with sketchily-written characters, but they rise above what is on paper and give us some reason to sit through Sarzameen. So do some of the side players, like Jitendra Joshi as Vijay’s deputy and Boman Irani, who features in a cameo in his son’s maiden directorial.

Ibrahim is showcased better than he was in Nadaaniyan — the opportunity to show off those chiseled abs in quite a few action sequences is made good use of — but at time when we have newcomers like Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda not only rewriting the record books but also being praised for their acting skills in the box-office behemoth called Saiyaara — Ibrahim has a long way to go. And then some more.

Did you like/not like Sarzameen? Tell t2@abp.in