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 from Kaml
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Filmfare how fair ?

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FILMFARE- HOW ‘FAIR’? 

Early this year just before the lockdown crisis, there was hue and cry over the Filmfare awards held in Assam wherein majority of the trophies were swept by the movie Gully Boy(2019). Agreed it’s an individualistic decision and opinion about liking or disliking a movie but how does one react when a senseless rap like ‘Tu nanga hi to aaya hai nanga hi jaaega’ wins best lyrics and a cameo by Alia Bhatt gets the coveted best actress award. Not fair no?

If you think Filmfare has played dirty only now then you are wrong or misinformed. We don’t need to check recent decades but it dates back to 1970 when awards were rigged. Filmfare awards started in 1953 and are considered the oldest and ahem most respected awards in our country. But they ain’t fair always, check Rishi Kapoor’s honest confession In his autobiography Khullam Khulla where he admits that the best actor award he won for Bobby(1973) was infact bought by paying thousands of rupees at that time. He himself claims there were other actors worthy of the award that year, including a rising angry young man. 



As per alleged reports, in 1970 the best actor award was bought by Rajesh Khanna for Sachcha Jhootha when the clear winner would’ve been Sanjeev Kumar for Khilona. Even leading ladies like Asha Parekh and Hema Malini have apparently bought the best actress trophies for Kati Patang (1971) and Seeta Aur Geeta(1972), in 1972 almost 90% awards were swept by a movie called Beimaan, a similar feat as Gully Boy. Actor Pran protested against the best music director award given to Shankar-Jaikishan for Beimaan instead of Ghulam Mohammed for Pakeezah. Pran refused to accept his own award for best supporting actor (Beimaan) that year as a sign of protest. 



Awards were also bought to gift to loved ones, it is alleged music director Shankar (Jaikishan) bought the Best Female playback singer award in 1970 and gifted it to his discovery Sharda. If Pran had a spine in the 70’s to single handedly protest against the rigged awards, in today’s scenario with the emergence of social media and with everyone having an opinion to submit online, there are many people who have called the award ceremonies nothing more than biased representations of sucking up to big egos of those who can afford to buy them, or worse shake their booty on stage for the organisers. 



So to cut a long story short, Filmfare has had a history of being openly unfair, biased and playing to the galleries. So was it fair to bestow so many awards on an average movie like Gully Boy ? Gully gully mein shor hai Filmfare wale unfair hain. 



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