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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QUEEN (2019) review

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QUEEN (2019) web-series 

Directed by: Gautham Menon 

Cast: Ramya Krishna, Indrajeeth Sukumaran, Anjana Jayprakash, Anika Surendran, Viji Chandrasekhar, Sonia Aggarwal, Vanitha Krishnachandran, Karuppu Nambiar, Vamsi Krishna & Lilette Dubey. 

Adapted from a biographical book of the same title, the web-series is an unofficial biography of the actor turned politician Jayalalithaa. A woman with a gigantic personality, who ruled the South Indian industry and later served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. 

Eleven episodes each averaging about 55 minutes each, this is a detailed depiction of the superstar from her adolescence to her political career, the makers have fortunately not subjected to white washing or glorifying the lady, maybe because of the ‘unofficial’ tag. The director successfully chronicles the roller coaster journey of a little girl who’s a state level topper in her school, transforms into a movie idol in her youth and finally reaches the pinnacle of power and success in her controversial political phase. 

Unlike the Azhars and Sanju’s there’s no attempt in justifying any wrong doings attributed to the star here, she’s portrayed in her true colours, shades of grey to be precise. 

Veteran Ramya Krishna plays the older version and her mannerisms, body language and approach towards the character just goes to show she researched very well. The supporting artistes get lesser screen time considering it’s an biopic but Vamsi Krishna (playing the Telugu screen star Shobhan Babu) is very impressive. 

Even though it’s really really elongated the makers deserve due credit for exploring all prominent details of the late superstar, and Bollywood biggies need to learn how to ‘humanise’ biopics rather than ‘glorifying’ them, for that they need to watch this South Indian biopic webseries, it is ‘unofficially’ appealing. 
⭐️⭐️⭐️

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