The Sabarmati Report is so flimsy in its execution, taking offence to it would be dignifying its existence, notes Sukanya Verma.
News is the truth that you choose to bring out, a cunning television journalist tells her artless subordinate early on in The Sabarmati Report. She's the villain of the piece for concealing inconvenient realities and conveying only what suits her purpose and politics.
Funny how The Sabarmati Report's poorly crafted propaganda masquerading as a crusade for justice is nothing but a blatant embodiment of these very ideals.
Directed by Dheeraj Sarna (after he took over from its original director Ranjit Chandel over differences in creative vision), this is an embarrassing work of bias inspired by the horrific events of February 27, 2002 when a fire in a train compartment of the Sabarmati Express killed 59 kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya at the Godhra railway station in Gujarat.
Accident or attack, the debate raged on in the face of its violent aftermath as communal riots claimed innumerable lives.
Lack of accountability, administrative failure, blame game, conspiracy theories, delay in courtroom verdicts, media's tamasha and talk of external hand, the usual drama dogged this dark chapter of Indian history.
Where sensitive movies like Parzania and Firaaq attempt to depict the trauma caused by the tragedy, The Sabarmati Report, dedicated to the lives lost in the incident, spends all its time pointing fingers at one side and entirely absolving another.
Across a timeline shifting between 2002, 2007 and 2017, a grievous scenario cuts to a courtroom trial where Vikrant Massey, playing a Hindi speaking journalist, indicts media barons of twisting facts.
Most of the movie is a flashback of his so-called investigative journey distracted by moments of him showing off a strictly Kapil Sharma brand of humour around a girlfriend he gets dumped by when unsettling information concerning the Godhra fire comes his way or a fellow colleague (Raashi Khanna) sharing his enthusiasm for reporting reality.
Both of them are up against a sassy, star anchor (Riddhi Dogra) with an attitude that would look right at home in season two of Call Me Bae.
All three are fine actors, especially in their conviction to convey such incredible hogwash with such credible straight face.
Though the movie insists it doesn't distinguish between the two religious communities, its narrative makes it loud and clear who it deems guilty and whose side it is on.
Where the minority is the face of stone-pelting, mischief-mongering, 'padosi mulk' cheering, terrorism breeding aggression, the rest are either victims or an Opposition plotting against those in power.
It's what makes the script's short-lived bouts of conscience, before it goes back to its appeasing ways, all the more laughable.
Both the timing of its release, amidst the bustle of the elections, and its lopsided tone resisting any room for nuance or doubt, opens with chants of 'Ram Ram' and concludes with chants of 'Ram Ram' against a visual of the newly constructed Ram Mandir.
For all its audacity, The Sabarmati Report is so flimsy in its execution, taking offence to it would be dignifying its existence.
All the continuity blunders on display in Vikrant Massey's changing hair and stubble only suggest this pitiable project produced by Balaji Films is a confused double agent that started out hoping to be a bold whistleblower but settled to become an appeaser for the regime in reign.
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