MISSION ACCOMPLISHED; SOUL SHATTERED: SEHMAT'S LONG JOURNEY THROUGH TRAUMA IN RAAZI (CALLING SEHMAT) BY HARINDER SINGH SIKKA

ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 302 MISSION ACCOMPLISHED; SOUL SHATTERED: SEHMAT’S LONG JOURNEY THROUGH TRAUMA IN RAAZI (CALLING SEHMAT) BY HARINDER SINGH SIKKA Ms. Nandhanaa Santhosh Kumar Nair Department of English Dr. N.G.P. Arts and Science College [email protected] Ms. A. Abibelsiya Assistant Professor, Department of English Dr. N.G.P. Arts and Science College [email protected] https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17283554 Abstract: This research paper delves into the psychological and emotional trauma endured by Sehmat Khan, the protagonist of Raazi (2018), a film based on the real-life story of an Indian woman spy during the 1971 IndoPakistani war (Ghazi Attack), adapted from Calling Sehmat (2008) by Harinder Singh Sikka. While the film is celebrated for its portrayal of patriotism and sacrifice, this study foregrounds the invisible wounds and psychological repercussions faced by Sehmat that sustain her, particularly after each act of killing and her eventual return to India. Drawing upon trauma theory, primary analytical framework, and internal conflict, the paper examines how Sehmat’s inner turmoil intensifies with each mission, highlighting the conflict between national duty and personal morality. The study also explores the cinematic techniques of the film, such as silence, visual symbolism, and restrained dialogue, to convey psychological distress. Ultimately, the study argues that Raazi transcends a tale of espionage, but also gives a nuanced exploration of emotional collapse, the moral complexities of warfare, and sheds light on the mental toll of war on those who fight it without uniforms. Keywords: Patriotism, Trauma, National duty vs. Personal morality, espionage, psychological distress, internal conflict. Introduction: Raazi, set in 1971, before the beginning of the Indo-Pakistani war (Ghazi Attack), is an espionage thriller of an Indian spy, Sehmat Khan, a young Kashmiri woman. Sehmat Khan, being married into a Pakistani military family, collected confidential information as part of an intelligence agency in India. This film explores themes of espionage, trauma, patriotism, sacrifice, moral complexities of war, internal conflict, and more. The movie bagged several awards, including IIFA Awards (International Indian Film Academy Awards), Screen Awards, REEL Movie Awards (by News18), Mirchi Music Awards, and NBT Utsav Awards. The movie, released in 2018, focuses mostly on the feminist aspect of a society where Indian women were given a chance to show their patriotism for their mother nation. As Sehmat quotes in Raazi, "Watan ke aage kuch nahi, khud bhi nahi." (Nothing comes before my nation, not even oneself.), Thus, it becomes notable about the aspects of feminism in both the movie and the novel. Meghna Gulzar, the Epic Director: Meghna Gulzar is an Indian writer, director, and producer. She is best known for directing critically acclaimed films, Talvar (2015) and Raazi (2018). Born to Gulzar and actress Raakhee, Gulzar joined her father as an assistant on his films and became a screenwriter for her father's 1999 directorial Hu Tu. The film was adapted from the novel Calling Sehmat, written by Harinder Singh Sikka. ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 303 Harinder Singh Sikka, a Prolific Writer/Patriot: Harinder Singh Sikka, an ex-Navy Lt. Commander and a prolific writer with several articles published and a few books, including Calling Sehmat and Vichhoda, also produced a film titled Nanak Shah Fakir. He has also addressed several students across various schools and colleges on his writing and experiences. Patriotism in Disguise: When Love for the Nation Demands Espionage: The concepts of patriotism and espionage, intricately woven together, explore the aspects of the trauma that follows after she betrays her in-laws. Sehmat, a young Kashmiri woman, is driven by a national duty of serving as a spy to gather intel on the enemy country, which had been plotting a Naval attack (The Ghazi Attack). Her transformation into a national spy had not been driven by political ideology, but by inherited loyalty. Sehmat Khan is forced to deceive and eliminate the people who doubt her, which leads to her eventual trauma, even though the espionage was successful. As she witnessed the growing humanity in her in-laws, her inner turmoil took a drastic turn and left her hanging between patriotism and unbearable guilt. The theory explored in this research article is Cathy Caruth’s Trauma Theory from Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History (1996). She argues that trauma is not fully experienced when the event occurs; rather, she argues that trauma is characterized by the "delayed response to an overwhelming event," manifesting through flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia, and fragmented memory. Caruth also emphasises that trauma is often expressed through silences, disjunctions, and repetition in both personal acknowledgement and historical chronicles. On applying Caruth’s theory to the film, Sehmat’s journey as a young spy includes stealing, deceiving, and killing those who trusted her. The trauma does not hit her at the spot, but erupts completely after returning to India after her mission. She sees flashbacks and faces of the two people whom she was forced to kill – Mehboob (brother-in-law) and Iqbal (husband), even though they were innocent and showed warmth towards her until their deaths. Caruth calls this delayed response to trauma “belatedness of trauma”; Sehmat does not take an emotional toll during the turn of events, but is haunted by them during the later part of her life in India. Gulzar’s Characters and the Unspoken Trauma in Raazi: Sehmat Khan Syed: Being the only daughter of Hidayat Khan and Teji Khan, Sehmat is married off to a Pakistani Military family to collect intel on a possible attack on India. She completes her severe training and settles down with her in-laws. She starts collecting intel once everyone in the family starts trusting her. The spy loses herself through each act of betrayal, from stealing confidential documents from her father-in-law’s office to each killing, deepens her fracture, not physical, but psychic. Her retreat into isolation after her eventual return to India shows a series of traumatic stress and moral injury. She, thus, becomes the spy who lost herself to emotional disintegration for doing her duty to her mother nation. She is also the embodiment of invisible patriotism and visible torment. Some of the trauma experienced by Sehmat cannot be expressed through words. One such events happen after her first killAbdul, the house help of the Syed Family. His growing suspicion leads him to his death at the hands of Sehmat. After the kill, Sehmat cries and vomits in the shower. She also continuously rubs her hands to wash off the blood of Abdul. This symbolises her attempt to erase the guilt of killing an innocent human and the trauma consuming her. This can also be related to the guilt of Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, who says, “Out, damned spot!” ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 304 Iqbal Syed: Iqbal Syed was a principled Pakistani officer who married Sehmat Khan, without any clue that she was an Indian agent. He grows to trust and love her despite their differences. He is also seen to forge a quiet emotional bond with Sehmat. As he learns the truth about his wife, he experiences silenced trauma-a sense of betrayal of love and trust. His death was quick after the revelation of the truth. His trauma was short-lived, but the guilt Sehmat faced after betraying her husband was etched into her soul for the rest of her life. Khalid Mir: An Indian RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) handler and Sehmat’s mentor, who also happens to be her father’s friend, experiences vicarious trauma, guilt, and emotional detachment. He was a patriotic soldier who was focused on the nation’s security. However, Sehmat’s breakdown after the mission breaks all his emotional barriers and shows deep personal conflict. He realises that this espionage mission cost Sehmat her humanity. His trauma shows a mix of accountability and vulnerability. He sacrifices individuals for strategy, but not without magnitudes. The silence he keeps when Sehmat breaks down. This shows a troubled mentor bearing an unintended liability. Hidayat Khan: A patriarch who chose patriotism over parenting sends his only daughter, Sehmat, to the enemy territory to gather confidential information, and feels it may be for the greater good. He dies early, with his words of motivation and patriotism etched in his daughter’s soul. This great patriot’s last words and demeanour suggest a man torn between his duty towards his nation and his love for his daughter. He endures distress, but it is subtly portrayed in the film. He willingly lets his daughter go, even if he knew that he was sacrificing her life, before she knew it. Abdul: The house help of the Syed family never believed in their new daughter-in-law, who was an Indian. He always kept a close eye on all her activities. When he starts believing her, he finds her sneaking out of the Brigadier’s office along with a file in her hand. He does not ask her right away. He felt the urge to get away from her and reveal the truth to the Syeds. Abdul’s trauma lies in the awareness that he is a powerless person in a household built on secrets and lies. Abdul senses something is wrong with Sehmat when he is killed by her as she finds out that he suspects her, to cover her tracks. His trauma was short-lived, but it emphasizes how the most vulnerable often bear the fatal burn of secrets. Other Characters: Sehmat’s mother-in-law, Begum Abida Syed, a quiet, observant woman, faces trauma due to the loss of her son, Mehboob Syed, and her house helper, Abdul. She shows love and affection to Sehmat, unaware of her identity. Her trauma is quiet, but disturbing. The feeling of betrayal consumes her completely, representing her maternal love toward both her sons-Mehboob Syed and Iqbal Syed. Brigadier Syed, father-in-law of Sehmat Khan Syed, faces trauma due to the loss of both of his sons and his officers. His calm composure and demeanour make it hard for the audience to notice the emotional depth of a father who lost his sons and a betrayed father-in-law of Sehmat, whom he considered his family. He becomes heartbroken when he learns that his beloved daughter-in-law was an Indian spy who caused the death of his sons and his officer during the falling action of the film. Though he appears to be proud and patriarchal, he is devastated deep inside, with a shattered soul. ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 305 Emotional Erosion and Espionage: In Raazi, espionage is not only seen as a theme/plot, but it sheds light on the emotional disintegration of the Indian spy and other people around her. A young Indian woman, drawn to the covert world of spying, propelled by a sense of duty and patriotism, sacrifices herself for the greater good of the nation. As she plunges deep into deceiving her in-laws, posing as a loyal daughter-in-law while feeding information to India-she begins to experience the effects of espionage through emotional erosion. Each act of betrayal, each lie told, and each life taken deepens her scar and slowly chips away at her emotional stability and sense of identity. Her trauma does not leave any physical scars, but manifests in emotional impassiveness, moral bewilderment, and psychological withdrawal from society. She is forced to kill cold-bloodedly, not because she desired it, but because of strategy. The clear sense of right and wrong becomes blurred once she starts taking innocent lives to save millions of her nation. Sehmat’s marriage to Iqbal was built on reciprocated respect and cordiality, but ended in catastrophe, which further intensified her trauma. By the end of the film, she appears to be emotionally hollow, solitary, and haunted, though the operation is reckoned to be triumphant. The film Raazi not only shows that espionage is simply a national duty, but leaves an unending emotional scar on its warriors, carrying invisible wounds even long after their duty is fulfilled. Sehmat’s Kashmiri identity portrayed in Raazi: Sehmat, born culturally as an Indian Kashmiri Muslim but maritally related to a Pakistani military family, is deeply rooted in India both ethnically and psychologically. Her cultural upbringing was infused with values of loyalty, love for her motherland, and a complex sense of belonging. Being trained to become a spy for India and married into a Pakistani family, Sehmat is put in a situation where her boundaries, both intimate and radical, become distorted. The fact that she belongs to both India, culturally, and Pakistan-relationally, creates an emotional skirmish within herself, thus escalating her trauma. A part of her fractured identity is caught between India and Pakistan. Being an Indian by nationality, Pakistani by marriage, and Kashmiri by heart and soul, Sehmat was constantly torn to tatters and tears at her sense of self. Her cultural, emotional, and psychological trifecta majorly contributes to the emotional erosion she undergoes. Her pain, according to me, does not belong to her just because she was a spy, but a woman whose identity was used as a political weapon in a dogmatic war. According to Meghna Gulzar, the director of Raazi, to the question “Did Sehmat’s Kashmiri identity give you an added layer to the story?” she answered, “I did not dissect it or overthink it, because then you will get frightened and not make the film. Because there are too many discourses that can open in this film. You need to remain focused on your core emotion that you want to convey, which is this girl, her immense selflessness, her patriotism as it meant in 1971, and her innate strength. Those were the pegs for me. Everything else is incidental and circumstantial, whether it is the India-Pakistan dynamic or Kashmir figuring in it.” She was questioned on how she connected the patriotism that Sehmat felt to what someone her age today feels about their country. She answered, “You do not adapt to what it means or feels today. Because you are telling the story of ’71. You stay true to that emotion and hope that it is a nice thing to remember, that it used to be like that. But you cannot compromise and try and put today’s interpretations into a film which is set in 1971, to make it more understandable or relatable. That would be being dishonest to the story.” Alia Bhatt, the enigmatic actress who played the role of Sehmat, said during an interview, “When you are part of a true story, you automatically feel a sense of responsibility even though ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 306 you have never really seen the real-life character,” Bhatt said. “Once you crack the way this girl [Sehmat] spoke, everything is done for you. Because the way you speak is a very big part of your personality. I decided to start her off at the most basic level of niceness and then take her graph from there.” According to Sappati Sai Satwik, “Raazi explores the themes of patriotism and sacrifice. It forces viewers to question the lengths one must go to for the love of their country and the moral grey areas that often accompany such choices. The film raises ethical questions that linger long after the credits roll. Raazi is a cinematic masterpiece that transcends the boundaries of a conventional spy thriller. With its powerful storytelling, outstanding performances, and thought-provoking themes, it is a film that not only entertains but also leaves a lasting impact. For those who appreciate a well-crafted narrative that delves into the complexities of human emotions and the sacrifices made in the name of patriotism, Raazi is a must-watch.” Conclusion: The Scars of Secrecy: After a long, tiring journey to Pakistan on an espionage mission, Sehmat sacrifices her sense of self and identity, emotional stability, relationships, peace of mind, and future, and a normal life of a young Indian woman. This research paper analyses the emotional disfiguration of Sehmat’s young carefree self to a stone-hearted Indian spy, willing to sacrifice everything for the integrity of her motherland. However, she fulfils her mission with unwavering dedication and the psychological aftermath that is marked by silence, dissociation, and emotional disintegration, exemplified by Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory. Sehmat’s haunting confession- “Main wohi kar rahi hoon jo mujhe sahi lagta hai... chahe uska anjaam kuch bhi ho.” (“I am doing what I believe is right… No matter what the consequence”) leaves the audience in awe not only at her moral courage but also foreshadows the irrevocable personal costs. The weight of espionage does not only exist as a physical weight but also as an emotional jeopardy. This study concludes that Sehmat’s story forces us to have second thoughts on the glorification of patriotism and its aftermath. This paper also further explores the idea that Sehmat’s trauma does not solely lie in violence and fear, but also in the delayed and fragmented dispensation of unbearable experiences like betrayal, killing, espionage, and emotional dispatchment. The study also challenges the narrative styles used in the movie. Raazi is also said to be inviting the audience to consider the human soul that suffers behind every spy in the history of all the nations spread wide across the world. Sehmat not only emerges as a young Indian spy, but also as a complicated, shattered representation of inaudible but magnanimous sacrifice, where success comes at the price of herself. Works Cited Bhatt, Alia. Interview by Sruthi Ganapathy Raman. “Alia Bhatt’s Fine Balance: ‘I Want to Be a Diva but I Also Want to Be at the Top of All Film Awards.’” Scroll.in, 5 May 2018, scroll.in/reel/877896/alia-bhatts-fine-balance-i-want-to-be-a-diva-but-i-also-want-to-beat-the-top-of-all-film-awards. Accessed 28 July 2025. Caruth, Cathy. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History. Johns Hopkins UP, 1996. Jamkhandikar, Shilpa. “Interview: Meghna Gulzar on ‘Raazi’ and Patriotism.” Reuters, 11 May 2018, www.reuters.com/article/lifestyle/interview-meghna-gulzar-on-raazi-andpatriotism-idUSKBN1IB0UG. Accessed 28 July 2025. Kadian, Sakshi, and Geetha Yadav. “Unarticulated Trauma and the Recurrence of Self: Implementing Cathy Caruth’s Trauma Theory in Living Smile Vidya I M Vidyaa ICSSR Sponsored One Day National Seminar on Literature, War and Memory: Narratives of Trauma and Healing in 20th and 21st Century English Literature 307 Transgender Journey.” International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT), vol. 13, no. 2320–2882, 2025, pp. 2320–882, www.ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT2503541.pdf. Accessed 22 July 2025. Raazi. Directed by Meghna Gulzar, performances by Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal, Junglee Pictures and Dharma Productions, 2018. Reddy, Sankalp, director. The Ghazi Attack. PVP Cinema and Matinee Entertainment, 2017. Sikka, Harinder S. Calling Sehmat. Penguin Random House India, 2008. “Harinder Sikka - IFP.” IFP, 5 Feb. 2021, ifp.world/creator/harinder-sikka. Accessed 20 July 2025. Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, Folger Shakespeare Library, Simon & Schuster, 2013. “Meghna Gulzar.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Apr. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meghna_Gulzar. “Raazi: Full List of Award Winners.” India Today, 20 Sept. 2019, www.indiatoday.in/movies/iifa-2019-winners-list. Accessed 28 July 2025. Sai Satwik, Sappati. “Raazi Review – A Cinematic Masterpiece.” Film Companion, 2018.