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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BREATHE INTO THE SHADOWS (2020) a review

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BREATHE INTO THE SHADOWS(2020) 

Directed by: Mayank Sharma 

Cast: Abhishek A Bachchan, Amit Sadh, Nithya Menen, Saiyami Kher, Shrikant Verma, Hrishikesh Joshi, Plobita Borthakur, Shraddha Kaul, Shruti Bapna, Pawan Singh, Kuljeet Singh, Baby Ivana, Resham Shrivardhan, Sunil Gupta, Jaspal Sharma, Vipin Katyal & Nizhalgal Ravi. 

Streaming on Amazon prime video this 12 episodic webseries delivers an high voltage suspense thriller but gets weighed down with an hackneyed disoriented plot theory. 

A celebrated psychiatrist- chef couple’s child gets kidnapped. The kidnapper has an unusual demand of ransom, the father of the child has to murder a list of people one by one as instructed by the kidnapper! The story progresses with an impulsive hot headed cop investigating the killings, the father of the child and the kidnapper playing a cat and mouse hunt with the police. 

Gripping? Yes. Fast paced? No. The episodes move at a snail’s pace dragging an otherwise taut story to twelve long episodes. Severe editing and a crisp direction could’ve made it much more thrilling. Shot mostly in Delhi with flashbacks in the picturesque Nainital, the cinematography by S.Bharatwaaj is top class. 

Jr. Bachchan credited as Abhishek A Bachchan gets a lifetime role, twenty years in the industry and he finally finds his calling, he acts well but falters in some difficult scenes. Sadh keeps a grumpy and disillusioned look throughout, cute and chubby Menen as the harrowed mother is so good that you want to reach out and help her. The little boy who plays the childhood version of the murderer in the flashbacks deserves a special mention, he’s extraordinarily impressive and shows immense finesse in executing complex scenes. 

Dark, gripping, mysterious, novel and well executed, yet you feel it could’ve been much much better. Nevertheless a good attempt in the psychological thriller genre. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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