Directed by Sumit Purohit, Saare Jahan Se Accha: The Silent Guardians draws inspiration from certain real-life events and personalities. The maker has taken some creative liberties, but those fictionalized elements are also a dramatization of the various conspiracy theories that have been circulating in the public domain for a long time. Whether it was the conspiracy surrounding Homi Bhabha’s death or claims of Indian intelligence agents collaborating with Mossad to prevent Pakistan from becoming a nuclear threat, some believe that the people were fed a false narrative, and the real truth never came out in the open. So let’s find out what happened in the series and if the Indian spies were successful in their mission.
Spoiler Alert
Why was Vishnu sent to Islamabad?
Vishnu Shankar worked as a junior intelligence officer when he was given the charge to handle Homi J. Bhabha’s (considered to be the father of the Indian nuclear program) security detail. Homi Bhabha was of the opinion that India should become a nuclear state, and he was quite vocal about his opinions. The CIA, at the time, had a strict watch on all the nations that had the potential to become nuclear powers in the near future, and they got to know about Bhabha’s intentions. It was stated in Saare Jahan Se Accha that the CIA had a role to play in Homi Bhabha’s assassination because they were threatened by the prospect of India becoming a nuclear power in the next 18 months. In 1966, Homi Bhabha was on his way to take part in the meeting of the scientific advisory committee, conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, when his plane crashed near Mont Blanc. Vishnu felt the guilt of failing in his duty and not being able to save the scientist. He knew things like this happened in his line of work, but his conscience was still burdened with guilt. It was a rough decade for India as a country, marked first by China’s attack in 1962, followed by a war with Pakistan three years later. The Indian government felt the need to establish an intelligence agency solely dedicated to collecting foreign intelligence and stopping terrorism, and, most of all, for making sure that the nation was prepared for any kind of adversity. That’s when, under the leadership of Rameshwar Nath Kao, aka R.N Kao the Research and Analysis Wing, aka R&AW, was established. Kao got information that India’s neighbors were trying to build their own nuclear weapons, and Kao knew the kind of havoc they could cause if they were successful in their mission. Kao made the decision to send Vishnu to Islamabad, on a diplomatic visa, to stop Pakistan from becoming a nuclear power. It was not just about a mere adversary acquiring a nuclear weapon; Pakistan becoming a nuclear state also meant that all the terrorist organizations operating from its soil, along with the Middle Eastern countries that had any kind of leverage over them, could potentially gain access to their nuclear arsenal too. Vishnu had just gotten married to a beautiful woman named Mohini, and Kao advised him to take his wife with him, as it was a good cover. Vishnu hadn’t told Mohini much about the kind of work he did, and he knew that he was putting her life in jeopardy by taking her there. But Vishnu’s guilt overrode all those feelings; he just couldn’t forgive himself for the unfortunate demise of Mr. Bhabha. Kao knew that he didn’t need the best agent for the job; he wanted somebody who was willing to lay down their life for it. So that’s how Vishnu and Mohini reached Islamabad, and the former started collecting evidence to find out where exactly the nuclear facility was going to be built.
How did Brigadier Naushad Ahmad get exposed?
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the president of Pakistan, was in talks with the country’s most prominent nuclear physicist, and he wanted to know how long it would take them to build a nuclear weapon. Munir Khan, an esteemed scholar and a renowned physicist, told Bhutto that the problem was that Pakistan did not have enough funds to finance the entire project. Bhutto was aware of the struggling economy of their country, and he also knew how difficult it was to secure funds. But still, he was adamant that he needed to expedite the entire process and become a nuclear power before India. What Bhutto did not know was that a high-ranking officer from the Pakistani army was leaking secret intel to R&AW. That officer was Brigadier Naushad Ahmad, and he was forced to do so as R&AW had compromising pictures of his son with another man. Naushad knew what would happen to him and his family if those photos were made public. Vishnu told Naushad to find out where the nuclear facility was located in exchange for a new and safer life in Europe with completely new identities. Naushad knew that if he took one misstep, he would be exposed, but he couldn’t afford not to listen to Vishnu. So he took the risk of his life, found a way to enter the secretary of defense’s office, and found the information that R&AW was looking for. Naushad was related to the ISI chief, Murtaza Malik, and he knew that if the latter came to know that he was a mole in the army, he would have him executed. Vishnu had promised Naushad that once he fulfilled his task, R&AW would provide passports and the other necessary documents and ensure his safe passage from Pakistan. But that couldn’t happen, as Murtaza Malik got a whiff of what was happening, and he was able to catch Naushad red-handed. Naushad told Murtaza why he’d agreed to betray his own country and requested him to kill him. Naushad knew that a formal arrest would mean that his reputation would be tarnished and his family would be ostracized from society. Naushad also asked Murtaza to take care of his son after he was gone. We saw the humane side of the ISI chief when he pulled the trigger on Naushad. He couldn’t stop his tears and probably kept questioning why life seemed adamant to place him in trials that weighed heavily on his spirit. Though R&AW lost one of their best assets, they got to know that Pakistan was not building a nuclear weapon on their soil, but they were importing a nuclear reactor and fission data from a foreign country.
Why Did Sukhbir Kill Rizwan?
Sukhbir was one of the spies who had established a good network in Pakistan. His cover was that of a financial trader, something that he used to do when he was in India, too. Sukhbir was arrested on charges of money laundering when he was in India, and that was when he met Vishnu for the very first time. Vishnu told him that he had laundered money for a militant organization, and he would be charged with sedition sooner or later. Vishnu told Sukhbir that he could get him released, provided he agreed to work as a spy for the Indian government. While living in Pakistan, Sukhbir hadn’t even talked to his mother for the past 4 years, and he asked Vishnu to get him out of Pakistan, as he wanted to escape from there before he met his fateful end. Vishnu had been able to figure out through Indian agents stationed in France that Pakistan’s entire operation was being financed through the BFCI bank, which had its headquarters in Islamabad. Vishnu wanted to know who was helping the Pakistani government in putting together the nuclear reactors, and for that, it was necessary to find where the money was being channeled. Vishnu had figured out that a guy named Bilal was meeting with a French arms dealer named Claude, and that he was the one who was handling all the bank transactions. Vishnu gave Sukhbir the task of getting him the bank ledgers of the BFCI bank for the past 6 months. Sukhbir had developed a close bond with an army officer named Rizwan, and over the period of time, he had also fallen in love with his sister, Naseem. Sukhbir knew that in his line of work, he was prohibited from dreaming about a happy ending, about settling down with a girl or having a family. But he had no control over his feelings. He dreamt about starting his own family with Naseem, though he had no clue how that would happen. Sukhbir took Rizwan’s help, as the latter knew the manager of the BFCI bank, Parizad. Sukhbir told Rizwan that he needed the ledger for a deal that he was brokering. Sukhbir paid a huge amount to get that ledger and then got it delivered to Vishnu’s office. Vishnu and his team studied the ledger statements, and they also captured Bilal in France and interrogated him thoroughly. Vishnu got to know that a nuclear technology corporation named HGN was the one that was helping Pakistan in making the nuclear reactor. After securing all the information from Bilal, he was eliminated, and his body was found in a staged car crash near the hotel where he was staying. Murtaza knew that he couldn’t afford to make any mistakes, and he just wanted to make sure that there were no loose ends. He went to meet the BFCI manager, and that’s when the latter realised that he might have committed a blunder by giving those ledgers to Rizwan. Parizad gave a call to Rizwan, who understood what Sukhbir’s entire game plan was. By then, Rizwan had also gotten to know that his sister, Naseem, and Sukhbir liked each other, and he had agreed to get them married. But Rizwan’s trust was broken, and he felt extremely hurt. He called Sukhbir and told him that he was going to reveal everything to Murtaza Malik. Sukhbir realized that he didn’t have much of an option other than to kill him. Sukhbir strangled Rizwan, hanged his body, and then planted some communication devices in his home to make it look like he was a spy. Sukhbir was overcome with guilt; he knew that Rizwan was the only family Naseem had. He told Vishnu that he was well aware of what he had signed up for and wasn’t asking for anything except a promise that, if he met his end, Naseem would remain safe.
Vishnu might have been an exceptional agent, but still, he wasn’t able to become the ruthless man that his profession needed him to be. He still cared for his men and couldn’t treat them as mere assets. He had felt extremely frustrated and remorseful when he was not able to help Naushad, and so he promised Sukhbir that he would live up to his promise and not let him down.
Were Sukhbir and Vishnu able to destroy the nuclear reactor?
In Saare Jahan Se Accha’s ending, Vishnu and his team figured out that the nuclear reactor and other equipment were going to reach the Gadani port. Murtaza was using the services of Oceanic Shipments, a major player in the cargo business, to get the goods delivered. The problem was that Vishnu didn’t know when the cargo was scheduled to arrive. Kao had told him that he could try recruiting a Pakistani journalist, the editor of the Haqqiqat newspaper, Fatima, though he made it very clear that it wouldn’t be an easy task to do so. Fatima was known for her fearless journalism, and she was not afraid to criticize the government and its policies. Also, Fatima was the niece of Munir Khan, the nuclear physicist who was at the helm of affairs. Vishnu met Fatima a couple of times, and he was able to persuade her to help R&AW in preventing the Pakistani government from making a nuclear bomb. Fatima was not a traitor, but she knew that spending so much on the development of nuclear bombs wouldn’t help the cause of an underdeveloped nation. She was of the opinion that her nation needed infrastructure; it needed better roads and better schools and hospitals first, and pursuing nuclear statehood at that point in time shouldn’t have been on their priority list. Fatima planted a recording device in her uncle’s office and thought that Vishnu got to know that the nuclear reactor was supposed to arrive in Pakistan on the 15th of that month. Vishnu realized that he immediately needed to put a team together and find a way to destroy the nuclear reactor. He got to know that since the reactor was dismantled, none of its parts were radioactive. The attack team consisted of Yasir Abbas, a weapons expert; Raghuveer Singh, a sharpshooter from the army; Uday Bhan Singh, an explosives expert; Sukhbir; and Vishnu himself. They reached Gadani port, but unfortunately, Yasir, Raghuveer, and Uday ended up losing their lives. Sukhbir had told Vishnu that in case they failed, he would load a boat with explosives and ram it into the shipment. Vishnu knew what that meant, and he asked Sukhbir not to do so. But I believe that Sukhbir felt that that was the only way he could be absolved of all his sins and prove his patriotism. He had sacrificed too much, and he just wanted to prove to himself and his nation that he amounted to something. In the end, Sukhbir sacrificed his own life and made sure that the nuclear reactor was destroyed. Vishnu did the impossible: he was successful in his mission, but still, he was not a happy man. That victory came at a tremendous cost, and he didn’t know how much more his work would demand of him. Before he knew it, he was once again sent near the Indo-China border for another mission. India conducted its first successful nuclear test on 18th May 1974, some 24 years before Pakistan. Though it is merely an unsubstantiated theory, it is said that Indian agents, with the help of intelligence agencies like Mossad, played a key role in delaying Pakistan’s attainment of nuclear statehood. I believe that there could be a Saare Jahan Se Accha season 2 where we might see Vishnu embark on a dangerous mission and overcome the odds once again.
