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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JL50 (2020): Review

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JL50 (2020) 

Directed by: Shailendra Vyas 

Cast: Pankaj Kapur, Abhay Deol, Piyush Mishra, Ritika Anand, Rajesh Singh and others. 

Sonyliv has been streaming some amazing series from the past one year with Scam 1992 topping the favourite charts almost everywhere. JL50 is an sci-fi series. Considering the four episodes with each averaging to about 35 mins each it can well be a feature film converted to web-series. 




In 2019 a plane crashes into a valley, it’s got mysterious undertones considering the plane had departed for its journey way back in 1984 and had mysteriously disappeared into thin air. The sudden emergence of this lost plane after 35 years causes a sudden psychological tremor for the investigators. 



With all the crew members and passengers dead and only two survivors who luckily survived because they were in the cockpit that crashed atop a hill, one the pilot and other, a strange and mysterious man with murderous eyes. The pilot claims she belongs to 1984 and the plane was hijacked. How it landed in 2019 still remains a mystery though. The tall lanky yet determined investigating officer (Deol) has a tough case to solve involving political background and national security at threat. 



At India we ain’t really known for sci-fi movies or series. Right from the Doordarshan series Space city sigma (1989) to Rakesh Roshan’s Krish franchise we haven’t really made anything worthwhile, they may have raked in the moolah at box office but we are almost fifty years backward in sci-fi genre as compared to the west. JL50 Is also a good reference point where the first three episodes keep you glued only to lose steam in the finale. 



What could’ve been one of India’s finest sci-fi series dealing with time travel fails miserably in a finale that stinks of outdated lost and found formulae of 70s Bollywood. No idea why the director tried catering to the masses in the finale when he had a clear winner on his hands. The entire mystery element and intrigue fades due to the obnoxiously directed climax. Of the cast Pankaj Kapur hams and talks with a fake Bengali accent making you cringe. Piyush Mishra manages to create the fear and angst required for his intriguing antagonist role. It’s Deol who delivers an earnest and sincere performance throughout. 



Could’ve been really good, Classic case of a delicious meal ending with tasteless desserts, can an able director time travel maybe not too far just two years back and change the finale please? ⭐️⭐️

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