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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SHAKUNTALA DEVI (2020/ prime video)

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SHAKUNTALA DEVI (2020/ prime video) 

Directed by: Anu Menon 

After watching this ‘miscalculated’ version all I think of is why not a detailed webseries on the life and times of one of the greatest mathematicians of the world who we can proudly say was an Indian woman. Seriously why not ? This biopic is a hurried rushed saga that has more loopholes in its screenplay than the potholes on your neighborhood road. 

Chronicling the life of “human computer” spanning eight decades across various countries, there is so much more the new generation would have liked to know about the great lady that Shakuntala Devi was during her lifetime. Unfortunately the director Anu “Lola Kutty” Menon delivers a badly calculated mathematical sum, the result of which is nowhere close to the perfect answers that were Devi’s forte and claim to superstardom. Devi’s obsession with mathematics and her alternate jumps into a successful astrological field and a failed political attempt are dealt as a pass off reference. A webseries would’ve been more comprehensive and a better tribute to this multi faceted legend. 

In the titular role, Balan does what she does best, act well but then we’ve seen her in far better acts in the past. Here she’s like ‘Sulu the mathematician’. It’s a pain to watch the talented Malhotra struggling with a bad characterisation and an even worse fringed wig that settles uncomfortably on her lovely head. The male actors are given on existent ‘extra’ roles, even an actor of Sadh’s calibre is wasted. 

Can we really ‘adjust’ the long and glorious life of a super woman like Shakuntala Devi in a two hour feature film? No we can’t, it’s a completely miscalculated erroneous attempt which fails to register. 

Cast: Vidya Balan, Jishu Sengupta, Amit Sadh, Sanya Malhotra, Prakash Belawadi, Neil Bhoopalam, Sheeba Chaddha, & others. 
⭐️⭐️

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