Saare Jahan se Achcha Web Series Review | Suchin Mehrotra | THR India

Suchin Mehrotra reviews Saare Jahan se Achcha, the Netflix spy thriller series starring Pratik Gandhi in the lead role. Created by Gaurav Shukla and directed by Sumit Purohit, and produced by Bombay Fables, this six-episode series follows the early years of India's RAW agency and its covert operations in the 1970s to stop Pakistan's nuclear program. In this detailed review for The Hollywood Reporter India, Suchin examines how the series follows RAW agent Vishnu Shankar (Pratik Gandhi) as he heads operations coordinating Indian spies operating undercover as Pakistani civilians. He discusses how the show aims to exist somewhere between the humanity and emotion of Rocket Boys and the high-stakes thrills of Special Ops, but results in an uneven ride that's neither here nor there.

Suchin highlights the series' solid production values, praising production designer Sukanta Panigrahi and costume designer Vira Kapoor for bringing the 1970s setting to life, while noting that the show awards dimension and humanity to Pakistani characters rather than reducing them to cartoon villains. He reviews the performances, noting that while Pratik Gandhi is one of India's finest actors, he isn't able to breathe life into a character the narrative doesn't know what to do with. The review covers standout performances from Sunny Hinduja as ISI head Murtaza and Suhail Nayyar as Sukhbir, while critiquing the show's reliance on insecure voiceover narration and its struggle to effectively establish characters. Suchin concludes that despite having potential for a tense thriller with grand stakes, the series rarely brings tension and feels more like a forgettable feature film lost in an uneven series format.