The Sabarmati Report Movie Review: Vikrant Massey has nailed the role of a vernacular photo journalist

Language: Hindi

 Director: Ranjan Chandel

 Cast: Ridhi Dogra, Raashi Khanna, Vikrant Massey

 Vikrant Massey has the caliber to go into the skin of any character with ease. Not just The Sabarmati Report, he has been giving one brilliant performance after another. A consistently good actor, who knows his craft like the back of his hand fits into any role that  is given to him whether it is black or white character. I would call him a genius in his craft and watching him on screen is like taking a masterclass on cinema.

Balaji Telefilms’  _The Sabarmati Report_  is based on what really happened on the Sabarmati Express on the morning of February 27, 2002. It takes us on a journey through an incident that changed the socio-cultural structure of India. This perspective on the event has rarely been discussed, yet it has had a lasting impact on countless lives.

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The movie starts on a lighter note as a film photo journalist played by Vikrant Massey who loves his job gets into a media house and gets a chance to cover the Sabarmati Express massacre. He follows his boss and by doing on ground journalism he realises that the incident isn’t an accident, but it was intentionally done by a community of people. He tells his immediate boss, an English-speaking editor, Manika Rajpurohit (Riddhi Dogra) who too knows that just two bogies of the Sabarmati Express getting burnt by accident is not the truth. Yet she gives a balanced report in support of the ruling government.

The movie makes us understand that there are no permanent allies or enemies in politics and even in journalism. _The Sabarmati Express_ throws light on the closed meetings that used to happen between the government and the media. The film makes us believe that it was a well thought massacre by a certain community of people and that the narrative that was fed to us for so many years is far from the truth.

Vikrant Massey plays the role of a photo journalist who passionately gave his side of the story with all his recording to the managing editor, but it gets swept under the carpet because no news channel then liked to tell the truth and preferred to be a stooge of the ruling government. The movie showed how the ruling government is kept happy by selling false news. It is true that the fourth estate failed us and fabricated news reigns supreme in most news channels who are more like power pleasers.

The Sabarmati Report is a well-researched story and what I liked most was that it didn’t beat around the bush too much. No unnecessary melodrama or stretching of incidents or even frivolous display of romance, but a sharply made film which found out the root cause of the tragedy. The movie throws light on how we look down on Hindi speaking journalists probably because of our years of conditioning ever since our childhood days.

The Sabarmati Report is no doubt an immersive film, but it is something in between a documentary and a movie. It is immersive and engaging, but I somehow felt that Vikrant Massey’s character needed some layers which the movie lacked. His performance in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail was commendable and I simply loved his performance and hated at the same time in Netflix’s Sector 36 to see the transformation to a man who feasted on human flesh. Not saying that his performance in The Sabarmati Report was bad, in fact he has nailed the role of a photo journalist, but the role itself was a little too flat and predictable for my refined taste bud.

Rating:  3 and half out of 5

WATCH the trailer of The Sabarmati Report here: