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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COOLIE NO.1(2020): review

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Director: David Dhawan 

Cast: Varun Dhawan, Sara Ali Khan, Paresh Rawal, Jaaved Jaffri, Johnny Lever, Anil Dhawan, Sahil Vaid, Bharti Achrekar, Shikha Talsania, Rajpal Yadav, Hemant Panday, Manoj Joshi, Vikas Verma. 

Yet another remake! That’s going to be the standard expression no? David Dhawan remakes his own 90s hit, frame by frame, no room for improvisation, includes comic formulae that is so 90s that it’s outdated now, sigh! And as an audience you are expected to lap it up. 



The story which has its basic plot exactly the same as the original goes like this, a Panditji (Javed Jaffri) is humiliated during a matchmaking  by an eccentric wealthy man(Paresh Rawal) who’s a Goan Christian. Now what a hindu pandit was doing at a Christian matchmaking ahem, it’s communal harmony you see. Anyways the pandit vows revenge and plans to get the wealthy man’s daughter married off to a roadside , err railway side coolie(Varun Dhawan). To complicate matters the coolie has to role play a double role to con the wealthy man. 



David Dhawan’s laidback and casual direction is evident, besides the plot even the songs from the original are remastered. Even if it’s meant to be an comedy of errors, you tend to get irritated by the unintentional confusion arising out of the mixed up and rehashed script. The dialogues are cheesy and crappy. Can’t even categorise this remake as trash, it’s pure Bollywood garbage not worth recycling. 



Saving the grace is veteran Udit Narayan with his still youthful at 65 vocals in the Monalisa song. Sadly the other veterans Kumar Sanu and Alka Yagnik are unable to recreate the ‘Main To Raste Se Ja’ magic. 



Varun Dhawan acts with a noticeable Govinda hangover, hams uncontrollably mostly mimicking yesteryear’s actors, making monkey faces and lisping his dialogues. Sara Ali Khan high on glamour quotient and sex appeal (wearing frocks meant for child artists) falters in acting, poor girl can’t even overact like the original Karisma Kapoor. Rawal and Lever are made to act over the top, even Rajpal Yadav reduced to an extra like role. 



Even if you are looking at an two hour entertainment slot this isn’t recommended, it’s a certified headache inducing trash bin. ⭐️⭐️

Comments

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