A 19-year-old spy did exactly as she was instructed to do and she did even better, but it was her vulnerability that stole the thunder.

Without much ado, Alia Bhatt’s meltdown in that constitutes the better and later part of the film lifts the trophy, and without a doubt! If you sit to deconstruct it, an innocuous 19-year-old Indian spy Sehmat did exactly as she was instructed to do and she did even better, but it was her vulnerability sans any jingoism that stole the thunder and paved way for patriotism that was patriotism alone. Apart from that, it was Alia’s gumption as a performer that makes the entire scene work. That and the frailty of emotions that perfectly captured the struggle, the internal turmoil of a wife who has just lost her husband and a spy who has successfully completed her mission. Meghna Gulzar’s direction speaks volumes in the breakdown, through the dialogue where she questions her mentor Khalid Mir played by Jaideep Ahlawat about the consequences she fears. The fear that she might turn into another soldier with blood on her hands and it is exactly where she begs to go back home. Having said that, it is almost cathartic how the scene can be the takeaway of the entire movie that not only instills patriotism but also not the chest-thumping kind.