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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AASHRAM 2(2020): Not Upto The Mark

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Directed by: Prakash Jha 
Cast: Bobby Deol, Darshan Kumar, Anupriya Goenka, Sachin Shroff, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Aditi Pohankar, Tushar Pandey, Tridha Chaudhary, Anurita Jha, Adhyayan Suman, Rajeev Siddhartha, Vikram Kochhar & others. 

Season one had it’s gripping moments with some unpredictability and authenticity, typically in Prakash Jha’s trademark pattern, somehow that’s missing in part two, and things look monotonous. 


Spread over nine long elongated episodes and also very strongly hinting at part three this could’ve easily been wrapped up this time. Continuing from earlier season the fake Godman Baba Nirala(Deol) continues his power hungry game, when he’s not raping innocent women or campaigning for politicians he’s found playing with puppets in his grand bedroom. There’s a lot of focus on the political affiliations this time, and after a point it drags and appears boring, if you don’t yawn then you are used to such repetitive fare. 



Jha is no doubt in great directorial form, has an excellent story but there seemed no reason to drag it so long, the Kaliya- Mardan episode is fantastically directed by Jha, you find a stereotyped Jha element in every nuance of this episode, but overall the series gets painstakingly dragged. 



Deol continues his wooden faced act and is lucky to have bagged such a good central role. Darshan Kumar gets unfairly sidelined while Rajeev Siddharth gets a meatier and lengthier role this season. Adhyayan Suman’s recurrent ‘Baba Layenge Kranti’ screams make you cringe as it starts getting on the nerves. Women are relegated to unimportant roles except Pohankar who strikes like a lightening with her ‘Pammi Pehelwan’ act, amazing role and an even better performance. 



Sometimes the OTT makers just need to know where to stop, one can’t go on and on and on with a subject which has only so much to offer, Jha should channelise his creativity and generously fuelled talent towards another series now. We are waiting. ⭐️⭐️




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