Jawan movie review rating: 2 and 1/2 stars out of five
Jawan star cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Vijay Sethupathi, Nayantara, Deepika Padukone, Sunil Grover
A wounded stranger with (literally) boiling blood dripping off him (Shah Rukh Khan) is saved by some villagers at India’s unnamed borders. When the cruel men from across the border attack (read Chinese) the village, our recovering man makes a mummified-in-bandages superhero-saves-the-day entry. By the way, he can’t remember who he is. Good old Hindi film amnesia (Main kaun hu? Kahan hu?) anyone?
Thirty years later, a mysterious bald man and a bunch of women hijack a metro train, exchanging a huge ransom for passenger safety. As with Tamil hero-as-superhero flicks, the seemingly bad people are actually good.
Back story after back story follows, backed by decent action choreography, Shah Rukh Khan-isms (walk, talk, dialogue-baazi, arms spread, graceful dancing, high energy), half-a-dozen looks, superb visual effects and colour correction.
Shah Rukh Khan goes south
Directing his first Hindi flick, 37-year-old Tamil director Atlee is a self-confessed maker of unpretentious, audience-pleasing, hero as superhero, blown up social messaging, vigilante justice, double-triple roles, father-son duos, a hint of anti-establishment and multiple hero entries to thumping background music.
Jawan is quite simply, a Tamil one-man-army action flick done in Hindi, starring Shah Rukh Khan. It’s many old wines in many new bottles. You have all seen it before in many Telugu/Tamil commercial movies. The 165-min popcorn cruncher fills in a lot – farmer suicides, voting rights, the state of government hospitals, malfunctioning army weapons, and how our hero has quickfire solutions to it all.
Jawan: Another vigilante movie
Atlee clearly echoes the formula of his Tamil counterpart director S. Shankar’s commercial vigilante/social messaging movies – Indian (1996), Mudhalvan (1998), Anniyan (2005) and Sivaji (2007). One of SRK’s looks in Jawan is straight from Anniyan, or later dubbed in Hindi as Aparichit The Stranger – which itself is a borrow from the musical – The Phantom of the Opera.
The beats of Jawan are fast-paced, editor Ruben ensures that there is no time to pause, which is a good thing for an action entertainer. Anirudh Ravichander does a catchy background score, syncing with the editing. Even though there are barely any silent spaces in the score, Anirudh doesn’t make it sound noisy. He certainly has the knack to do a mass audience, hero-worshipping soundtrack – be it the year’s Tamil hits – Jailer and Leo.
The much talked parts have been the suspected dialogues directed at the authorities. The first one pops up in the train hijack scene, where the hero laments that no matter which government is elected, the situation doesn’t change – it more or less remains the same. In the finale, the hero almost breaks the fourth wall and speaks to the audience. He makes a speech on the importance to vote on the basis of development and not on the basis of religion or caste.
The most talked about part is the one where Vikram Rathod (Shah Rukh Khan’s older avatar) says, “Bete ko haath lagane se pehle baap se baat kar (Before laying your hands on the son, talk to the father). This seems to be a clear reference to the troubles Aryan Khan, Shah Rukh Khan’s son, underwent in a drug-related case.
The Shah Rukh Khan effect: What keeps Jawan humming is SRK’s presence, trademark dialogues, his hold on action, the G.K. Vishnu cinematography, Anirudh’s mass-catchy background score and couple of good songs. Vijay Sethupathi makes the most of a badly written stereotypical villain.
Nayanthara is wasted in an unconvincing cop role, as are Sanya Malhotra, Riddhi Dogra, Priyamani, the other ladies and Sunil Grover. Deepika Padukone, despite the underwritten part, makes an impact.
Jawan is a no-brainer, seen-it-all-before action entertainer in a glossy package, done with surefooted conviction.
