JAWAAN (2023) : review

Image
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 from Kaml

MIRZAPUR 2 : Great expectations?





Cast: Ali Fazal, Pankaj Tripathi, Divyendu Sharma, Shweta Tripathi, Isha Talwar, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rasika Dugal, Amit Sial, Anil George, Anjum Sharma, Rajesh Tailang, Meghana Mallik, Sheeba Chadda, Harshita Gaur, Rajesh Jais, Vijay Verma, Liliput Farooqi, and others. 

After my first impressions about the much awaited and even more over hyped season 2 of MIRZAPUR it certainly deserved a afterthought review. Ten super length episodes later it’s more of an impatiently exhaustive feeling ! 

After a horrifyingly delicious finale in season 1 the series moves at a snail’s pace throughout except the final episode in season 2 wherein it’s in the fifth gear, but that’s too late. The entire slow paced, pseudo intellectual kind treatment this season backfires, comparisons with season 1 are inevitable, but even if we do not compare the two seasons, this time it’s quite a dull affair to view. And binge watch is strongly not recommended unless you’ve a determined extreme patience level. 

The plot moves forward with the focus relying on Guddu and Golu’s revengeful attitude, both manage to hold an angry, vendetta filled expression throughout. Guddu also gets attracted to Lala’s sexy daughter Shabnam (remember it was her grand nikaah where the bloodbath took place last season). There is a political angle included prominently this time wherein the UP chief minister’s widowed daughter Madhuri gets married to Munna as a part of a political affiliation. A dwarf Daddu Tyagi and his twin sons Bharat and Shatrughan are also included to make matters more complex and cumbersome. Above all the Tripathi Khandan that is reigning supreme in Mirzapur continues with its internal family issues and fight for the supremacy. 

What disappoints most is the finale, it begins on a high note with an unexpected very well executed murder of an important character, but ends like a dull dove, the face off between Guddu and Munna is bland, dead meat and boring. Where’s the menace, attitude and that fearsome chutzpah that was so required there? It’s like great expectations being met with dull results. What could’ve had the charisma of an Anurag Kashyap kind of drama goes downhill and turns predictable after a point. There’s no doubt whatsoever that the makers are inspired by Kashyap’s GOW(2012) which was evident in season 1 as well, over here it doesn’t work well. 

Of the cast Pankaj Tripathi is a delight as Kaleen Bhaiyya, totally indispensable in the role, cool as a cucumber you see him losing his temper only once in the total ten episodes, his command over the character only consolidates his expertise over complex roles. Both Ali Fazal and Divyendu Sharma as Guddu and Munna respectively are caught in their stereotyped image, there’s nothing more they can add to their roles and that’s sad. Vijay Verma in a double role is good but the characters don’t click, but Liliput Farooqi is a complete dhamaka, so are Anjum Sharma and Rajesh Tailang who add a spark to their roles. The actor playing ‘Robin’ has played his colorful character really well, ‘yeh bhi theek hai’. 

Women don’t have much scope here except Rasika Dugal in her author backed role of the malicious Bahu, very complex character, and She plays it with great effort. Shweta Tripathi as Golu though transformed from a girl next door to a feisty femme fatale doesn’t quite impress, likewise Isha Talwar as the widow turned Tripathi Bahu turned Cm, the character is mindlessly hollow and half baked. 

The dialogues ain’t that whistle blowing variety, while sexual undercurrents stay woven throughout the narrative, violence is at its peak with the body count increasing and reaching an uncountable rate by the finale. Recommended only if you are a die hard MIRZAPUR franchise fan and hero worship the characters. Well, I do hero worship one of the characters, Kaleen Bhaiyya, totally love worthy. ⭐️⭐️

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

FLASHBACK# An Affair To Remember ?

An uncut diamond called SARIKA

FLASHBACK 1993: Censor, Choli & Chaos!!