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 ...
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MENTALHOOD - review

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MentalHood (2020) Zee5 / ALTBalaji 

Webseries Directed by: Karishma Kohli 

Cast: Karisma Kapoor, Sanjay Suri, Tilottama Shome, Shilpa Shukla, Shruti Seth, Sandhya Mridul, Dino Morea, Sameer Malhotra, Rohan Joshi, Satyen Chaturvedi, Jas Binag, Master Charlie, Master Mikhail, Baby Mihika, Master Atharva, Master Ayush, Baby Deshna, Master Preet, Master Shaurya, Master Aarash, Baby Aayushi, Amrita Puri(Sp.App.) 

The queen of Indian tele soaps Ekta Kapoor collaborates with the Queen of 90’s Bollywood hits Karisma Kapoor to present a ten episodic web series preaching the trials and tribulations of motherhood which they prefer calling mentalhood. Right at the outset the lead actress mouths an awkward dialogue claiming “Motherhood is a blessing? Bhenchhod” !!! Expletives May work well in the Sacred Games or Mirzapur but in this case such lame wannabe attempts make Mentalhood appear like Gareebon Ka “Four More Shots Please” ! 

Based in Mumbai the plot centres around five mommies and one single dad who are connected through their kids studying in the same high profile school, each mother has a challenge of her own and they try helping each other solving the issues faced. So there are all kinds of mom shown herein including working moms, helicopter moms, negligent moms, hyper moms, just about all.

It’s good that subjects like parenting, child sexual abuse, misogyny, etc etc are dealt with but the treatment just doesn’t work convincingly. As a viewer it’s difficult to connect with the unrealistic characters, maybe it’s the Ekta Kapoor effect why else would the female artistes sleep and wake up with perfect full on make up. 

Karisma Kapoor is miscast and tries really hard to justify the role, maybe she deserved something better. A fine actor like Suri looks passionately disinterested and almost sleepwalks. The surprise is former wooden now expressive Dino Morea who is really good in his portrayal of a single dad. Wish the production values weren’t so poor (imagine it’s a reputed production like Balaji) and the subject dealt more maturely and sensitively maybe with a dash of intellectual humour, it may have connected better. 

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