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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OK COMPUTER (2021): review

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Directed by: Pooja Shetty and Neil Pagedar 

Streaming on : Disney hotstar 

Cast: Vijay Verma, Radhika Apte, Kani Kusruti, Sarang Sathaye, Vibha Chhibber, Ratnabali Bhattacharya, Alok Ulfat, (Sp. App.)- Rasika Dugal, Jackie Shroff and Shekhar Kapur. 



Are we ready for this? A sci fi black comedy set in a futuristic world predicting machines taking over human roles. If you don’t quite like this genre then skip it, otherwise it’s a nice watchable comic relief with recurrent hiccups. 



Set in 2031 that is exactly ten years later, we are introduced to a modern world run by machines, humans totally dependent on technology which is superficially advanced. An unknown victim gets brutally murdered by an automated driven car and the acp (Varma) is assigned the task to nab the culprit. Considering a car has no feelings or emotions one has to find out who planned and executed the murder. Acp also has to find out identity of the victim. Several suspects pop up including a naked old man (Shroff) and inventor of robots (Dugal) but the acp has much more to investigate than the murder. 



The plot is good enough, and for a black comedy the dialogues and situations are a plus point here, very well executed by the director duo. The cast is in fine form with both Varma and Apte excelling in their respective roles, they share such a good chemistry that the onscreen rivalry exudes impressive charm. Shroff is passable and veteran actor turned film maker Shekhar Kapur in an important cameo is pleasant to watch. 

Special mention of Kusruti and Sathaye as the assistants to the Acp, both act really well, acting accordingly to justify a black comedy is what they do. 



An experimental, watchable attempt to explore a futuristic world of machine v/s man, and add some dark shades of comedy to that, certainly good for a one time watch. ⭐️⭐️

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