This man revives the industry. This man disrupts the industry. This. Man. Is. The. Industry.
Now that I’ve got my fandom out of the way, let’s try understanding Jawan. Shah Rukh Khan’s latest nationwide house party.
Note – I’ll not be talking about Shah Rukh Khan’s performance here as that will be a separate, forthcoming standalone article.
You can’t term it otherwise. Shah Rukh Khan’s fanbase has transcended the realms of being a mere legion. It is so well connected, not just virtually but on an emotional plane too that it could be considered a nationwide inner sanctum at least if not a family.
While it could’ve been fairly easy for Red Chillies Entertainment and Atlee to deliver a subpar film and play by the numbers advantage, the reward here is effort. To tell a story, to entertain and to create a value proposition.
Jawan mostly succeeds because it is an honest film that accepts it’s multitude of flawed facets.
A social redemption story perched atop the reliable shoulders of vigilante drama, Jawan is pulsating from the word go.
Unleashed to deafening roars, the film sets off onto it’s course of rabid action pieces and rapid swerves. The lead in to all songs is visibly gimmicky and the treatment demands you to suspend disbelief, what saves the film is Atlee’s conviction.
Every frame is designed principally with elan, no matter how far fetched. Atlee’s confidence and earnest will to hold his audiences’ attention anyhow becomes rewarding as he owns the shortcomings of his film by tuning up its entertainment to levels that you’re too overwhelmed and content to complain.
A certain set piece looks over the top? There’s suddenly another action piece or entry that pulls a whistle out of your wind pipe like local train TCs pull out commuters without tickets.
Jawan, on a mood plan front, feels like steroids are on steroids. Take prime Undertaker from WWE and put him on crack. That’s SRK in every frame, that IS every frame in Jawan.
Even though not author-backed, the women in Jawan have a lot to chew on. They represent all they key arcs and development of the story but fall victim to the edit job which has to fit all the high octane material along with some very mid and needless songs.
The soundtrack is a heavy downer. Zinda Banda needed a better singer. Chaleya is fine but not an unforgettable track. Faratta wasn’t needed. Catering to commerce, galleries and a bit of research makes it lag in places led by its disappointing album score. But equally redeeming is it’s thumping background score. Timed and tuned to perfection, the BGM is the final character of this film that enhances the experience. But the minor gripe remains.
Music cost the film some valuable screen time that was butchered in some key moments like the confrontation or the comeuppance craving climax.
Deepika Padukone is a natural. She has earned the right to have her own action franchises. Note the plural.
She takes this extended cameo and outshines everyone in the film. Even Khan to some extent.
Nayanthara has always been an actor who reads the room like a ninja. And here she knows her job is to complement Khan as an equal, oft rival and she succeeds in both.
It is a delight to watch Priyamani every time. Flawless, she is for all the meat that is provided to her.
Sanya Malhotra seems to have made a career out of turning roles without meat into pivotal characters of the films. Her performance in Jawan is a classic case of turning chicken shite into chicken salad – proving that for great actors even a single sequence is enough to smash it out of the park.
The only bummer though is the lack of female involvement in the climactic fights. Noting how some of the most exhilarating reactions in theatres all over were when the ladies kicked ass, the heavy lifting should have been shared equally too.
Nevertheless, this is a step taken in the right direction. Ladies in Jawan aren’t damsels in distress. They are legit ass-kicking machines.
Vijay Sethupathi. Acts with his forehead. Kills with his gaze. Doesn’t even bat an eyelid, for real. By now he has aced the menacing goon to an extent that he could play such roles in his sleep.
The accented Hindi just adds to his portrayal of the Diabolical Kalee Gaekwad. An arms dealer who dupes his own nation is the perfect foil to elicit the apt nationalistic emotions and enthuse one to rally for the avenging hero.
But it is not merely the nationalism of Jawan that works well but also the perfect balance of desire and defiance. The film unapologetically makes very strong and fair political statements antidotal for a multilingual, free spirited, liberal, bohemian and welcoming country that India is originally known to be.
In a move that only he can, Shah Rukh goes meta while addressing the people in the film’s universe and and outside it with a plea that most of us want to put forth in this day of dilapidated discourse. Jawan is an anti-eshtablishment, socially aware film that rechristens the angry young man character for a newer generation. The results are heartwarming. The right kinda India represented by its favourite Hero.
Jawan is what the current gen would call wholesome, the previous generation would call reformatory and our generation would call Humne toh bola hi tha SRK phod dega.
Of heartstopping entry scenes, machismo and madness, the film is neither a cinematic marvel nor a thespian’s treasure. It is the celebration of that one thread that binds the nation together – Shah Rukh Khan.
The film has its heart in the right place.
Punya hai ya paap hai. Jawan definitely box office ka baap hai!
