Revisiting Sehmat - An Analysis Of 'calling Sehmat'

An introduction to Harinder Sikka's 'Calling Sehmat':

The novel, 'Calling Sehmat' portrays the life story of an Indian spy, who was married into a Pakistani army family to fetch information for India during the 1971 war. Her identity is still unknown to the public. Interestingly, the novel varies at a lot of points from the movie 'Raazi' on Sehmat's personal life.

It all begins from Sehmat's son coming to attend his mother's funeral and retelling to the masses gathered what roles his mother had played in her life.

Sehmat Khan was born to Tejashwari Singh and Hidayat Khan, a well settled family based in the Kashmir valley.

The love story of her parents had always moulded her to believe in fate and true love. Being an only child to the couple based in Kashmir, she was well surrounded by everything she could ask for. Sehmat's life at Delhi as a young undergraduate student had brought her to her passion - dancing and to the love of her life - Abhinav who was a fellow student.

At the point of her life where she discovered her bonding with the most eligible bachelor in town, life brought her to her duties towards her father and to her motherland. As a part of her father's duties of an agent, she was married to a Pakistani army family to fetch information for India.

Sehmat's beauty, humility, intelligence and most importantly her training of a spy allowed her to folly people around her. The works she was meant to do in the house went well until her identity and her activities were discovered by the house servant. As a part of her job, she had to kill him in the most voracious manner which left a scar on her forever that couldn't be erased by the support and love of her mother and Abhinav later.

One after the other, incidents unfolded in Sehmat's life that made her erase every block on her way selfishly. What makes the novel different from the movie is the equation she shares with Iqbal, her husband. The man who discovers her truth but chooses silence due to his feelings and her pregnancy. His fear of losing his wife and child made him to help her to keep her secrets a secret on the basis of a promise that she would never do it again.

In the eyes of Sehmat, Iqbal was only a Pakistani soldier who could be used to her advantage for her service to her motherland. At the same time, she discovered the most crucial information that could change the course of the war - the information associated with the most important Naval aspect, the information about INS Vikrant.

It was urgently necessary to supply this information to the Indian intelligence. Her mind raced through the various schemes of actions and finally she was succesful in supplying the information to Indian intelligence. Along with it, she skillfully ensured the death of Iqbal and her sister in law as per her plan with Mir. After the drama, she finally reached the soil of her motherland and met her mother and Abhinav who both had patiently waited for her all those days.

The saying, 'Man's will is often overruled by the god's will' came true in Sehmat's case. Despite her pregnancy, Abhinav wanted her back with her mother's approval but her journey of a spy had brought her to the succumbs of depression and hallucination where instead of choosing Abhinav she chose to live at the house of the house servant she killed along with her mother. Seeing her condition, Abhinav - the man who loved Sehmat most ardently adopted her child with Iqbal and obstinately against the will of Sehmat's mother gave him his father's identity by naming the child, Samar Khan.

The state of Sehmat prolonged for the next seven years and changed only by the visit of a seer to her house. The seer's predictions to Sehmat's mother came true as Sehmat came out of her secluded zone and decided to raise her only child which she did beautifully but all of this had killed the life in her. She never was the same Sehmat she was before she went to Pakistan which added further to her mother's agony as Sehmat was unable to choose Abhinav who waited for her forever and is still alive though Sehmat isn't anymore^[1]. She was an iron lady to the village, her kindness, warmth, service, intelligence and the beauty of her soul brought solace to many who only after her death discovered her identity from her son who was serving in Indian defence forces as a captain then. The last chapter of the novel, leaves an impact on the readers keeping them perplexed about the beauty and power of Sehmat's soul as well as the inevitable truth of the universe - death.

Annotated Sources:

1. https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/celebrities/story/alia-bhatt-raazi-calling-sehmat-harinder-sikka-1238728-2018-05-22

Additional Sources:

1. https://www.thecuriousreader.in/book-vs-movie/sehmat-raazi/

2. https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/society/meeting-sehmat-story-behind-the-story/597434.html

3. https://scroll.in/reel/875081/the-bit-from-calling-sehmat-that-isnt-there-in-raazi-the-kashmiri-spys-first-love