With an intriguing premise about a Kashmiri girl who marries into an influential military family in Pakistan with the objective of gathering vital intelligence on happenings in that country for the benefit of the Indian government, and starring two of Hindi cinema’s most talented young actors in the form of Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal, the new Raazi appears plenty promising at first glance. However, directed by Meghna Gulzar—who adapted the screenplay with Bhavani Iyer from a 2008 book by retired Indian navy officer Harinder Sikka titled Calling Sehmat, based on a true story—the film takes one too many contrived, melodramatic leaps throughout, straining credulity despite solid performances from the cast.

But for all its shortcomings in terms of plot, pacing and characterisation, where Raazi does triumph is in its determined refusal to indulge in over-the-top jingoistic rhetoric—the temptation to give in to which cannot be underestimated in a film like this that focuses on ever-turbulent India-Pakistan relations. In fact, Raazi goes so far as to question the human cost of patriotic sacrifice—on both sides of the border, mind—which, though not exactly new territory, is explored here with a refreshing delicacy and nuance that not too many Bollywood films on a similar subject can boast of.

It’s the year 1971 and tensions are running at a particular high between India and its neighbour to the west: War is on the horizon, and officers at the intelligence bureau in Delhi have reason to suspect Pakistan of planning a large-scale military clampdown on the East Pakistan liberation movement—directly supported by India. RAW is thus desperate for any information on the enemy’s plans and movements that might allow for preemptive measures, and so far, the exertions of one Hidayat Khan (Rajit Kapoor), a businessman who has been making the most of his frequent travels to Lahore and the extensive contacts he has built there to spy for India, have sufficed. Hidayat, however, has just discovered he is terminally ill and won’t be able to go on much longer. A replacement is therefore called for immediately, and he offers up a potential candidate: His own daughter.

And so it is that Sehmat (Bhatt)—clearly unable to fight the manipulations of a dying parent—agrees to drop out of university and enroll in a super fast-tracked secret agent training course. Once she’s acquired some nifty skills, she’ll be getting married to Iqbal (Kaushal), one of the sons of Parvez Syed (Shishir Sharma), a brigadier in the Pakistani army and a close friend of her father’s. The plan? Embed herself amid the Syeds in the role of a dutiful daughter-in-law, gain their trust, and use that to access military secrets, to be communicated back to India. It all sounds simple enough on paper, but Sehmat is very soon all too aware of the perilous position she has put herself in, constantly at risk of her deception being discovered. More importantly, however, she finds that her assumptions about the “enemy”—long drummed into her head—do not hold up all too well against reality, and betrayal is going to be difficult in more ways than one.

Whatever expectations Raazi might have raised in your mind by virtue of being “based on a true story” start to waver less than half an hour into the film, by which time Sehmat has already been persuaded to take on the assignment, trained in the spying arts and settled in her new home in Lahore. This is perhaps the film’s weakest stretch, primarily owing to pacing—I wish the writers had, for instance, taken more time to flesh out Sehmat and Hidayat’s relationship, the dynamics between them that had led to such quick assent on her part to drop life as she knew it and enter this wholly different, dangerous new world. Not to mention, the reaction of her mother (played by Bhatt’s real-life mum Soni Razdan) to the plan, so ridiculously passive as to be absurd.

And though it’s interesting to watch how Sehmat uses the position of a docile, devoted, ideal “bahu” to her advantage—liberated by the very fact of her subjugation to throw the Syeds off the scent while she goes about her business—the ease with which she is able to fool the family and the far too many serendipitous coincidences that help her along are a bit difficult to swallow nonetheless. Keep an eye out for one particularly far-fetched sequence where Sehmat takes up a job giving singing lessons to a young boy just so she can pilfer files from a top-level army meeting taking place nearby—what proves to be not just a feat of espionage but also the most dubiously effective, and unintentionally hilarious, tutoring stint you may have ever seen.

Thank goodness, then, for the versatile, eminently watchable Bhatt, who carries the film almost entirely on her capable shoulders, charging through these improbable plotlines and the character’s own frequently unclear motivations. And she’s helpfully placed in the midst of some terrific performers, not least of whom is Jaideep Ahlawat as Sehmat’s spy-coach, very much reminiscent of Colin Firth’s character in the Kingsman series. Kaushal, however, isn’t given enough opportunity to truly show off his considerable acting chops in a rather diminished role here, though it does build in significance belatedly.

But by far the biggest weapon in Raazi’s arsenal is its careful, measured treading of political waters, despite all initial appearances to the contrary: There are no clear villains here, no obvious sides to be taken. Rather than relying on easy, mindless chest-thumping—the way what feels like 90 percent of the films starring Akshay Kumar or John Abraham seem to be doing these days—Gulzar is more interested in digging into the construction of patriotism itself, especially of the sort that is characterised by vilification of perceived enemies. In depicting integrity on both ends—Sehmat has, after all, encountered nothing but decency and kindness at chez Syed—the film manages to humanise all players, reminding us of the dangers, and ultimate futility, of belligerent nationalism. For that alone if nothing else, I’d recommend giving Raazi a shot.

RAAZI

Director: Meghna Gulzar

Actors: Alia Bhatt, Jaideep  Ahlawat,

Vicky Kaushal, Shishir Sharma

Genre: Drama