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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(Temporary Backup) Raktanchal (2020) review

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Raktanchal (2020) 

Director- Ritam Shrivastava 

Cast- Nikiten Dheer, KrantiPrakash Jha, Chittaranjan Tripathy, Soundarya, Vikram Kochhar, Daya Shanker Panday, Krishna Bisht, Ronjini Chakraborty, Basu Soni, Pramod Pathak, Rajesh Dubey. 

Right from the onset we can guess the inspiration for this gangwar webseries, it has to be the cult classic Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), high on violence, replete with choicest Hindi expletives it’s also got a good storyline. 

Set in UP, the basic plot centres around two warring gangs, one led by the egoistic cold blooded Waseem Khan(Dheer) and the other by a simpleton turned gangster Vijay Singh(Jha), their mutual hatred for each other multiplies the dead body count where the two try outdoing each other notwithstanding innocent lives getting butchered in the bargain. 

Direction is first rate, Shrivastava stays clear of making it another Mirzapur(2018) but the overdose of foul language and graphic violence could’ve been toned a bit, people are shown chopped off with the same ease as chopping veggies in a kitchen! Both Dheer and Jha get strong roles and perform well, enough scope for displaying toxic masculinity and machismo. Women are portrayed as sex objects(two raunchy item songs included) except Chakraborty who gets a meaty role in a well executed ‘honey trap’. The performer of the series is Kochhar as ‘Sanki Panday’ having a vintage Gulshan Grover kind persona. 

Technically on a good note, (Vijay Mishra’s cinematography takes the cake), if gore and verbal diarrhoea makes you nauseous skip this violent revenge drama, KJo and Ektaa Kapoor have enough candy floss fantasies as an antidote. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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