The Sabarmati Report, Trailer launch: Express train. Engine Arrival Time in Mumbai: 06 November 2024, Departure: Unknown
On 27 February, 2002, one compartment of the Ahmedabad-Varanasi Sabarmati Express train went-up in flames at a railway station in Godhra Junction, killing 59 passengers and injuring 48. Many politicians and media-persons equated this with the 9-11 attacks, on 09 September, 2001, on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, of the USA, and other places, in which 2,997 people were killed, including 343 firemen, and the Towers totally destroyed, by two aero-planes that rammed into it, bringing down the iconic structures. (It is a queer co-incidence that this report is being filed on 9-11, but the Indian way of describing the event, i.e., 9th of November). The USA described the man-made disaster as the worst in history, and launched a worldwide hunt for Osama Bin Laden, the alleged Al-Qaeda leader, considered the mastermind of the attacks, though Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the operational planner. All 19 hijackers died in the attacks, bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in 2011, in Pakistan, and Mohammed was captured in 2003.
Back home, in India, the train disaster was known as the Godhra incident, where a fire engulfed only one compartment of a train. Wide-spread riots followed all over the State of Gujarat and other Indian states, with the minority community being held responsible for killing of victims, and faced the wrath of members of the majority community, seeking vengeance. These included Ehsan Jafri, a sitting Member of Parliament. On 24 June 2022, the Supreme Court dismissed allegations of “larger conspiracy” levelled by Zakia Jafri, widow of Congress leader Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots, against the then Chief Minister of Gujarat and present Prime Minister and over 60 senior state officials.
Its verdict, “Inaction or failure of “some officials of one section of the State administration” cannot be the basis to infer a pre-planned criminal conspiracy by the State government, the court held.” The train was carrying passengers returning from a pilgrimage. 22 years later, a bunch of producers have made a feature film on the cause and the lead-up to the condemnable killings, while not going whole hog, into the consequences. They are Shobha Kapooor, Ekta R. Kapoor, Amul V. Mohan and Anshul Mohan. Very interestingly, in an AI search, this came-up, “Vikir Films is a production company that is known for its work on The Sabarmati Report: This film was released in cinemas on November 15, 2021 (Three years ago? Really?). The film’s song ‘Raja Ram’ was launched at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) India, along with the “Diwali Muhurat Trading” bell-ringing ceremony. I think they have mistakenly stated the film was screened, when it must have been the just the song. Vikir Films is active on social media, including Twitter and Instagram.”
The panel set up by the then railway minister Lalu Prasad had concluded that the train fire was “accidental”. The current Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in My 2024 that the Congress, then in power at the Centre, tried to “set free the accused.” While addressing an election rally in Bihar’s Darbhanga on May 4, PM made a reference to the Justice U. C. Banerjee Commission, that had probed the Godhra train burning incident of 2002. The legal battle has moved back and forth between the trial courts, and the Supreme Court, resulting in 172 convictions at the first stage, with 124 being life imprisonment, though some of these have been overturned in appeal.
Tracing the lead-up to the incident and the incident itself is the agenda of the producers and the lead actors, Vikrant Massey, Raashii Khanna and Ridhi Dogra. Except for Shobha Kapoor, the mother of Ekta and the wife of actor Jeetendra, all the persons named above were present.
As the trailer suggests, the makers have claim to have all the facts, and they give a clear indication of where the film will head. Vikrant Massey plays the man of the hour, who was an eye witness/photographer, but his efforts to bring his version of the incident are is not allowed to be made public by his boss, Ridhi Dogra. Heroine Raashi Khanna plays the voice of dissent against official and protocol heavy versions. He shouts out in the trailer, “In such a big country, how is it possible that such a big attack has been kept under wraps for such a long time?” Well, the incident was never kept under wraps, but he refers to his evidence being suppressed and him being jailed. Perhaps, Vikrant is most likely the Vik in Vikir Films, which has co-produced the film, with Balaji Motion Pictures, the Kapoor banner. No idea what ‘ir’ stands for.
Ekta Kapoor said that she gets more determined when challenged and cares two hoots for the trolling on social media, which even comments on her wardrobe, criticising whatever she wears. The actors were very vocal in their effort to plug the film, and why shouldn’t they?
The trailer and the film troll the media. Ekta said that she has not been helped in this venture by any Minister, including the Prime Minister. She also doesn’t care about censorship. “The film is 100% factual, and we have researched the subject thoroughly. So there is absolutely no fear of censor objections.” She might be right, because various highly sensitive political biographies and thrillers, based on true incidents, have been given the green light by the censors, and almost all of them have done roaring business.
37 year-old Vikrant Massey studied in my alma mater, R.D. National College, and has worked in A Death in the Gunj (fiction), Chhapaak (biographical), a romantic comedy Haseen Dillruba. In 2023, he was the lead player in another biographical film, 12th Fail, (2023), which earned him the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor. Raashi Khanna, 34, forayed into Mumbai after successful films in the South, mainly in Telugu. Sabarmati Report will be her second Hindi release after Madras Café (2013). The third actor in the Triangular drama is Ridhi Dogra, appearing for the fourth time in a Hindi film, after Lakadbaggha, Jawan and Tiger 3. On Wiki, the credits are interesting: Directed by Dheeraj Sarna (Replaced), Rajan Chandel
Screenplay by Arjun Bhandegaonkar and Avinash Singh Tomar, and dialogue by Dheeraj Sarna. Sarna is known as the writer of Yeh Hai Chahatein (2019) and Jodha Akbar (2013). In September 2024, a new poster of the film was released, with Chandel’s name having been replaced by Dheeraj Sarna as the director. Asked about this move, he said that he wasn’t informed about the credit change before the new poster release, but he has no qualms about it: “I only took that decision to get out, so I don’t want my credit at all now.”
Well, in a week from now, when the Sabarmati Report is released in theatres, we’ll know whether the film jells with the audience, and it would matter little to them that the film had two directors, one originally signed and another replaced near the release. Do you follow my train of thought?
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