The movies are back and HOW.
I’ve watched three movies this year – Pathaan, Rocky aur Rani ki Prem Kahani and Jawan. And I’ve loved each of them. For all the flak that over the top Bollywood cinema gets, its pretty much the kind we grew up watching. I can never forget how my dad would buy tickets in black and take us for movies like Roop ki Rani Choron ka Raja or Lamhe. I grew up watching this fantasy world – a galaxy far far away from reality. And it felt good. I think COVID was a much needed snap cut to the nonsense we had begun to make – Sooryavanshi, Circus, Shamshera, Thugs of Hindostan – omg, the stuff I started writing reviews about! But, the movies THIS year have brought back the same joy as childhood. All the three movies I watched have crater sized plot holes, but boy, do they have the element of joy which is Bollywood! Life’s hard enough, with enough dramas in our families, at work, in our relationships – I’m much happier suspending belief and watching irrational nonsense if it can make my heart warm – exactly the reason I enjoy some very random Korean dramas.
I never got to write about Pathaan and RRKPK but here goes, my ten point review of Jawan without giving away a plot twist I’m dying to write about.
- Atlee is clearly a Money Heist fan – one of the girls has Tokyo’s hair, the prison looks straight out of the vault, Nayanthara (a negotiator/single mother/romances the lead who’s the antichrist) is Raquel and don’t even get me started on the bandage mask!
- Atlee is also a Dark Knight Rises fan – Dragging a main character to lock him up, a Bane looking villain, it has the feels!
- Vijay Sethupathy, this star – what a wonderful year playing the good cop in Farzi to a menacing villain in Jawan. Excellent casting – The villain universe is in good hands! Not so subtle references to the Matrix – red pill/blue pill!
- Deepika’s cameo is short lived but sharp (I cried through all her jail scenes) – more hard hitting than Nayanthara’s role I’d think.
- Social messaging on point throughout the movie – be it farmer suicides, voting apathy, malfunctioning substandard arms – I loved how some real life stuff was thrown in the mix with an otherwise fantasy movie (of course – how can a 57 year old man SLAY like that!)
- Nayanthara did not recognize Shah Rukh from the voice – this is a Rab ne Bana di Jodi plot hole hitting you in the face.
- +10 bonus points for references to older movies – Kaveri amma, Bahubali (did he mean Thangabali!?), Nayak nahi Khalnayak hoon main
- Shah Rukh is probably also setting up retirement – channeling his inner Rajnikanth to do action like Vijaypath’s Ajay Devgan
- I saw glimpses of Shah Rukh characters in the three hours of Jawan – Veer Pratap Singh, Major Ram Prasad from Main Hoon Na, Pathan, Don, Kabir Khan from Chak De (what’s with this captain leading a bunch of women beating up men!) and I could’ve sat there for three more hours chomping on popcorn watching more. I eagerly await Jawan 2.
- Never been a Shah Rukh fan, but oh dear, this action hero, anti-establishment Shah Rukh is all I want to watch now!
Thanks for bringing back the movies, Shah Rukh!
