Apart from the prominent historical characters like Zulfikar Bhutto, Gaddafi, and Indira Gandhi, there were many others who were introduced in Saare Jahan Se Acha: The Silent Guardians, who played a key role in the story. So, let’s get to know who these people were, understand what motivated them to do what they did, and the kind of impact they had on the fate of their nation.
Spoiler Alert
Vishnu Shankar
The junior intelligence officer, who bore the guilt of not being able to save Homi J Bhabha, was eventually sent to Pakistan on a dangerous mission. Vishnu was a dedicated agent, but unlike his peers, he still had a lot of empathy left within him. He cared for his people, and that, I believe, was his best quality. He won the trust of his agents by going the extra mile for them. We saw how he got in touch with Sukhbir’s mother and then informed him about her well-being. I just felt that Vishnu, after the mission concluded, felt lost, unsure whether anything he had done truly made a difference, as he lost most of his colleagues. He had lost his agents, because of which even after accomplishing his task, it didn’t seem like a victory. Also, his marriage had suffered because of his work, and he didn’t like how vulnerable his wife, Mohini, felt due to his behavior and connections. I believe that if there is a season 2, we will definitely see Vishnu once again, spearheading a dangerous mission and fighting for his country.
Murtaza
The character of Murtaza Malik was probably the most humanized version of an ISI chief that I have seen in recent times. Generally, there is a stereotypical way of depicting any character who hails from Pakistan, and I believe this Netflix series broke the pattern. And that is something that I loved. Murtaza was a patriot, and just like Vishnu, he was ready to put his own life on the line to safeguard his nation’s interests. Murtaza was the one who was overseeing the entire mission where a French company was helping Pakistan build a nuclear reactor. I felt that if we had seen what was going through Murtaza’s mind in those moments when he was alone, glimpsing his vulnerable and personal side, then his character would have been far more engaging.
Sukhbir
Sukhbir was a victim of his own actions and, to some extent, his circumstances. He’d just been put behind bars in India when Vishnu came to meet him for the first time. Vishnu had leverage over Sukhbir, and the latter did not have any option but to go to Pakistan and live the life of an undercover agent. Sukhbir was pretty good at what he did; he laundered money for his clients, and he made some really good connections with some extremely important people. Sukhbir knew that he was playing with fire and that at any moment he could lose everything. I believe that Rizwan’s death became a turning point for Sukhbir, and though he kept speaking about starting afresh with Naseem, his love interest, in reality, he had realized that there was no way out for him.
Mohini
I saw Mohini as a pragmatist, one who was not afraid to accept reality. She liked Vishnu the first time she met him, but she had no clue what she had signed up for. I think, had Vishnu told Mohini the truth about his line of work in detail, she would have understood him way better. But Mohini didn’t like being kept in the dark, and that led her to feel insecure about every aspect of her life. She suspected Vishnu of having an affair with Fatima, not out of jealousy, but because she felt that she didn’t really know who her husband was. I believe that after everything they had endured together, Mohini and Vishnu would come closer than ever.
Fatima and Munir Khan
Fatima was, I believe, a true patriot. She understood that going against Bhutto’s policy was not going against the nation. Being an editor of a popular newspaper, she understood that their nation needed good infrastructure and good schools and hospitals, and they couldn’t afford to spend that much money on building a nuclear weapon. Fatima was the niece of Munir Khan, the nuclear physicist who was overseeing the technical aspects of the mission. Fatima decided to help Vishnu, though she knew the consequences she would have to bear if anybody found out about it. Munir Khan even asked Fatima not to print anything in her newspaper that didn’t serve the interests of the Pakistani government, but she just bluntly refused to do so. I believe that there was a lot of scope to explore Fatima’s character, and the script didn’t do justice to it. I can imagine a spinoff series centered on her character, because the conflict that existed within her was really intriguing.
R.N. Kao
R.N. Kao was one of those characters who was inspired by a real-life person. He was the one who had established R&AW and sent Vishnu on a dangerous but equally important mission to Islamabad. While Vishnu handled the on-ground situation, RN Kao made sure he met with his foreign counterparts and put pressure on the Pakistani government diplomatically. Kao was a ruthless pragmatist, and at times his approach didn’t match with Vishnu’s. For him, the nation came first, and he didn’t bat an eye if that led to any agent losing their lives. He believed that it was a prerequisite in his line of work, which was why, at times, it made him appear emotionless and rather insensitive.
Naushad
Brigadier Naushad was forced to leak intel to R&AW, as Vishnu and his team had found some information about him that had the potential to tarnish his and his family’s image in society. Naushad’s son was gay, and he knew that, so long as they were in Pakistan, that information couldn’t come out. Naushad was a family man; for him, his wife and his children came before the nation. He knew how the politicians manipulated the common man and made them believe that obeying their orders was the only way to prove their patriotism. It was through Naushad’s intelligence that Vishnu and his team got to know about Pakistan’s plan to import a nuclear reactor. Naushad was killed by Murtaza, and in his last moments, he just told the latter to look after his family after he was gone.
Vikram and Marya
Vikram and Marya were R&AW and Mossad agents, respectively, who were stationed in France, and they were trying to find out what Bilal, the representative of the Pakistani government, was up to. It was Marya who lured Bilal into a trap, and then Vikram tortured him to get information. Vikram and Marya’s characters were also quite undercooked, and I felt that there was a lot of scope to explore them in a better manner. I felt that it would have made for an interesting story if we were shown how Vikram built his connections and how he established his network in France without raising any red flags.
Naseem and Rizwan
Naseem was Rizwan’s sister, who had grown quite close to Sukhbir since her brother shared a very good bond with him and treated him like a friend. Naseem had imagined her entire life with Sukhbir, not knowing that he was an Indian spy working to sabotage Pakistan’s nuclear project. I believe that Sukhbir, too, had fallen for Naseem even after knowing the fact that he was not allowed to do that and that he was involved in a doomed romance. Sukhbir took Rizwan’s help to get the ledgers from a bank that was financing Pakistan’s nuclear project. Once the manager of the bank expressed his concerns about the misuse of those ledgers, Rizwan understood that Sukhbir was involved in some kind of shady business, and he confronted him. Sukhbir had to kill Rizwan, and he was overcome with guilt as he knew that he didn’t deserve it. We never came to know what happened to Naseem after Sukhbir’s death. Probably, she would have to deal with the trauma of whatever had happened all her life, though I hope that she does find the courage to move on.
Raghuveer, Yasir, and Uday
These three soldiers were the finest in their fields—whether in handling explosives or sharpshooting—which was why Vishnu wanted them in his attack unit. They knew that there was a chance that they wouldn’t come back alive from their mission, but that didn’t deter them in any way. All of them died fighting on the battlefield, but till their last breath, they tried to destroy the nuclear reactor. The sad part was that Vishnu knew that nobody would ever get to know about their sacrifice, and they would be forgotten as if they never existed.
