Review of Raazi (2018) by Rachel G — 16 Nov 2018

Raazi, starring Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal, is an adaptation of the novel, Calling Sehmat, and is based on the true story of a young Indian woman, Sehmat. Set in 1971, as tensions were rising between Pakistan and India, Sehmat's father arranges Sehmat's marriage into a Pakistani military family in order to spy on them for the Indian government. The film depicts Sehmat's evolution as she grapples with her duty to her country and her own sense of morality, whilst functioning within a family unit. By superimposing a typical domestic lifestyle with the darkness of war, the film's depiction of war is harsh and unforgiving. Themes typically associated with morality and virtue in Bollywood, such as love, children, and religion, are manipulated or destroyed throughout the narrative. Thus, Raazi cleverly expresses the jarring reality of war.

The film also twists the idea of nationalism into a perverse and ugly entity, one which most of characters use to justify abhorrent violence. Sehmat's extreme nationalism drives her actions as she falls deeper and deeper into a cycle of violence and inhumanity, struggling to control the chaos unfurling as her espionage risks being exposed. This is a departure from some of the typical celebratory connotations that nationalism often has within Bollywood films. Saba Bhaumik identifies this trend in many Bollywood films that, in the last decade or two, opt out of being political and instead focus on inducing feelings of nationalism, specifically through the trope of the "NRI", the non-resident Indian, coming home (Bhaumik, "Politics of Indian War Films"). Interestingly, Raazi does the complete opposite in telling a politically driven story and concurrently highlighting the problematic features of nationalism. Raazi is also innovative in it's lack of any distinct character or group that represents evil. This contrasts a film like Main Hoon Na, in which there is a clear villain who highlights the immorality of the war by instigating conflict between India and Pakistan. In Raazi, however, instead of just having one character to embody this evil, the moralities of all the characters are manipulated, leaving the viewer to question the very morality of war in it's essence.