What strikes you first in Saare Jahan Se Accha, produced by Bombay Fables, is not the espionage, the high-stakes politics, or the sweeping geopolitical context. It’s the people. Every key player in this taut political drama is finely etched, their motivations complex, their loyalties shifting, their humanity intact. This is a series that understands the weight of history but never forgets the individuals burdened by it.
The series forms its spine with Vishnu, played with piercing grind by Pratik Gandhi. An intelligence officer for RAW, Vishnu is no dashing spy in the traditional mould. He is intelligent, conflicted, and dangerously good at lying—to the world, to his enemies, and perhaps worst of all, to himself. His mission to infiltrate Pakistan during the fraught 1970s nuclear race is intense, but the real drama lies in the way he negotiates the consequences of becoming a ghost in someone else’s life. Posing as a newlywed with Mohini (Tillotama Shome, excellent as always), he must maintain the illusion of domestic bliss while quietly unravelling an international secret. The marriage, transactional at best, serves as a mirror to Vishnu’s double life, close, suffocating, and deeply lonely.
This emotional nuance extends across the board. Sunny Hinduja’s Murtaza, the Pakistani intelligence chief, is introduced as a brutal man, unapologetically loyal to his nation. But the show offers glimpses, brief and telling, into his private weariness and the slow erosion of his identity under institutional duty. Hemant Kher’s Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is portrayed with political fervour and personal urgency, and the supporting cast, from Suhail Nayyar’s long-buried double agent to Kritika Kamra’s principled journalist, each add a lived-in, layered dimension to the fabric of the story.
Director Sumit Purohit resists the temptation to stylise espionage into spectacle. Instead, the pacing is methodical, the silences heavy, and the tension real. There’s no flashy globe-hopping or exaggerated theatrics. What you get is a gritty, atmospheric portrayal of intelligence work as it likely is, slow, isolating, perilous.
The writing, by Gaurav Shukla and Bhavesh Mandalia, is unshowy but effective. It is more interested in the moral tightropes the characters walk than in jingoistic pronouncements. There’s a recognition that spies are not heroes in capes but pawns in a larger, merciless game, often forced to sacrifice their soul for a cause that may not even acknowledge their service.
What we could see is that the show is gorgeously grounded. The production design captures 1970s Pakistan with rich detail, dusty alleys, tense drawing rooms, flickering movie theatres, each frame alive with history. The cinematography avoids gloss, favouring realism that complements the show’s grounded tone.
Saare Jahan Se Accha is a rare blend of intelligence and emotional honesty. It doesn’t seek to simplify its historical moment or paint its players in black and white. Instead, it asks what it really costs to serve your country and whether patriotism, in its purest form, is ever without personal ruin.
IWMBuzz rates it 4/5 stars.
