JAWAAN (2023) : review

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And finally the much hyped, much awaited Jawaan saw light of the day ! Big stars, big budget( humongous budget actually), big music composer, everything super large. But does it meet the expectations of the average viewer? No it goes not. Read on.  A decorated jawan locks horns with a criminal called Kaali, this is in 1986 ( the year movies like Aakhri Raasta released, just for reference). Kaali gets him eliminated and send the pregnant wife to jail. The baby born in jail grows up to become the hero (look alike of the father) and decides to avenge the misdeeds done to his innocent patriotic parents. Well, isn’t it a masaaledaar full on Bollywood- Tollywood drama subject ?  And then the director Atlee also borrows ideas and references from various retro movies, some idea from Sholay (1975) as the hero assembled a gang of jailed Qaidis in order to form a team to nab the villain, then there’s an entire episode borrowed from Dhartiputra (1993), and the basic theme is copy pasted ...

Hate Story 4 ~~~~ The Review

It’s raining Franchise in Bollywood. You’ve a hit movie and if there is any chance of cashing on that genre then churning out a series of franchise seems to be the latest fashion in the past ten years. ‘Hate Story’ franchise is exclusively the erotic thriller genre and it categorically targets a certain section of viewers. 

The fourth installment is set in the beautiful picturesque London, the movie begins itself with a shocking murder and then switches over to a hackneyed flashback, in case that gives you an headache this movie has flashback Mein flashback concept which will confuse you even more, in fat it’s like a jigsaw puzzle. The story revolves around a night club dancer (Urvashi Rautela) who is handpicked by a corporate family (Gulshan Grover and sons) to be the official model to represent their new brand of cosmetics in the UK, after a series of twists & turns( which could even put Abbas Mustan to shame), generous liplocks & body show and off course murders we are finally served an entire confusing & complicated erratic, sorry an erotic thriller. 

The director Vishal Pandya who also has to credit the past two Hate Story series seems to have mastered the ‘art’ of conveying his stories using female anatomy as the principle medium, for a movie which is supposed to be promoting women empowerment and showing evils of female abuse the director has exploited the women in this movie through his lenses. There is nothing novel about this revenge drama, it has derived inspiration from 80’s thrillers like Zakhmi Aurat(1988) and Khoon Bhari Maang(1988), even the basic concept is a straight rip off of Baazigar (1993). Pandya fails miserably in his uninspired direction. The worst part is the cringe worthy dialogues penned by Milap Zhaveri, these are the worst ever dialogues in history of Bollywood. 

The Music is a torture to your senses, whatever inspired the makers to remix Himesh Reshammiya’s title track of Aashiq Banaya Aapne(2005), the crooning and the high bass sound can easily perforate your ear drums. Rest of the songs sound like the singers were half drunk while recording. 

Sex symbol Urvashi Rautela is a delight to watch thanks to her gorgeous face and impressive screen presence, unfortunately Pandya focusses mostly on her physical assets rather than her acting and just for the record she can act really well. Vivaan Bathena is wooden like a solid rock and Karan Wahi looks out of place is completely miscast as a spoilt brat. Veteran Gulshan Grover has graduated from his bad man days to a bad dad now but a weak characterisation let’s him down. Mohit Chhabra sleepwalks inspite of having a better role than the two heroes & Ihana Dhillon lacks the X Factor though Pandya has exploited her to the fullest on screen. 

Pandya should’ve stuck to a basic plot rather than trying to infuse too many twists and surprises, there is a twist every Ten minutes and you wonder what the hell is going on. The only saving grace in this mess is the leading lady who makes her presence felt even though she has very little or negligible support of the director. To give Pandya his due credit one must acknowledge the episode he has shot in Mumbai involving Tia Bajpai & Shaad Randhawa which depicts the harsh reality in our country today but sadly this noteworthy sequence is a part of a really bad film. 

Alas ! Even if this film tanks there is hundred percent guarantee that the production house T-Series will collaborate with Pandya to dish out another Hate Story. It’s movies like these that you would hate to love and love to HATE. 
⭐️

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