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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VEERANA (1988) Revisited

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VEERANA (1988) Revisited 

Directed by: Ramsay Brothers 

Cast: Hemant Birje, Jasmin, Sahila Chaddha, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Vijendra Ghatge, Gulshan Grover, Narendra Nath, Satish Shah, Rajesh Vivek, Vijay Arora, Tina Ghai, Rama Vij, Rajendra Nath, Baby Vaishnavi, Baby Sneha & Kamal Roy. 

Very few Bollywood horror lovers might dislike this classic horror movie which had almost all the mandatory ingredients to cook a delicious Bollywood horror meal. Romance, comedy, sleaze, action, haunting melody everything in abundance ! 

Centered around a wealthy Thakur’s family, they face the wrath of a doomed vampire when she possesses the body of Thakur’s young daughter. After growing into a voluptuous heiress she haunts in the wilderness singing in an high pitched tone attracting random men who are found brutally murdered later-on. 

Directed by the horror specialist duo Tulsi & Shyam (Ramsay Brothers) this is one of their better conceptualised movies. It’s evident they’ve focussed more on the storyline, resulting in an interesting final product. Every murder committed by the vampire is filmed well relying on gore & typically 80s hollywoodish slasher style. Arora’s and Grover’s death scenes are simply watchable & a delight for horror lovers. Bappi Lahiri’s music haunts you with the recurrent ghost track ‘Saathi Re Tu Kahan’(Suman Kalyanpur) & a peppy romantic duet ‘Dil Ki Dharkan’(Mohd Aziz/Sharon Prabhakar). 

You think of Veerana and the first thing you remember is the glamorous rose complexioned Anglo Indian starlet Jasmin, oozing sensuality & raising testosterone levels. Muscular Hemant Birje and bubbly Sahila Chaddha made a cute pair while veterans Kharbanda & Ghatge provided able support. 

Won’t ever categorise this movie as trashy, certainly better than many B grade Hollywood slashers of the 80s, Ramsay Brothers had a money spinning box office winner in this one. 

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