Sarzameen, starring Kajol, Prithviraj Sukumaran, and Ibrahim Ali Khan, was released yesterday on OTT, and many had expected the movie to soar.
The film was predicted to be a promising directorial debut for Kayoze Irani under the banner of Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions; however, early reviewers have given it as low as 1.5 stars.
Kajol, with her innate gravitas, tries to emotionally anchor the film, but even her range gets strained under the weight of a poorly written script.
Fans reveal that Prithviraj’s potential is also wasted and reduced to a narrative device solely there to move the plot ahead.
While these two powerhouses gave their best to save the film, they could not save it from Ibrahim Ali Khan’s performance.
According to many viewers, Ibrahim still gave a better performance than in his debut film, Nadaaniyan, but failed to embody the character of a militant.
Audiences labelled his performance flat, especially during the father-son confrontations, where he fails to build the tension required to create genuine drama.
Fans are calling out Dharma and Karan Johar for trying too hard to sell Ibrahim, twice, as the leading man when he clearly lacks the acting prowess to pull off characters that require screen presence.
Social media users guessed that the producers also chose to release it directly on OTT because they were aware that the film had no potential at the box office.
The real question now is, where does Ibrahim go from here? He was recently spotted outside the Maddock Films’ office with actress Sreeleela, leading to the speculation that both stars might soon appear on the big screen together.
For Sreelela, this film marks her debut in Bollywood. She has previously worked in a number of Telugu and Kannada films and already has a loyal fan base.
After looking at Ibrahim’s track record, fans have also raised concerns about whether this film will hamper Sreelela’s image as she enters a new industry.
Moviegoers are also questioning why leading production houses are betting their money on nepo-kids when they have zero screen presence or audience pull.
Some fans speculate that most production houses prefer star kids solely because sooner or later they become a household name owing to the popularity of their star parents.
For now Ibrahim has a chance; his upcoming film will serve as a test to determine his future trajectory in Bollywood as well as the production houses’ credibility to launch legacy star kids.
