We love Shah Rukh Khan. Let's start with that and get that one out of the way. No, none of us are the blood-hungry Sameer Wankhedes who perhaps was picked at again. This time when Shah Rukh said the famed line “Bete ko Haath lagane se pehle baap se baat kar” and ‘leaked’ it in the trailers.
No such intent. Like we said. We LOVE Shah Rukh. From a goofy Rahul in Chennai Express to an almost National Award-winning Mohan Bhargav in Swades– oh we loved him through and through. Don’t even take us to the DDLJ and Darr days – we will cry our eyes out in extreme admiration for this fine actor and the finer superstar that he is.
Jawan doesn’t disappoint either. What starts off with a bang, quite literally with the Metro hijack scene where a Cartier-toting Nayathara almost misses the mummy-wrapped villain aka Vikrant Rathore (played by Shah Rukh Khan); the movie lightly simmers off to a Deepika Padukone jumping in as the much needed lucky charm for a big venture like this.
Jawan is quite the seeti-maar movie you’d expect from an Atlee. For those who don’t know – Please watch Mersal and Theri and then come back to this review. We will wait.
Kamar-tod action from a young Shah Rukh and an old Shah Rukh (Spoiler alert not required for those who are smart enough to understand the beta-baap dialogue), passable songs with the female actors (Yes, the ladies’ man ensured he danced with everyone), high adrenaline dialogues from SRK, Nayanthara and oh, ofcourse Vijay Sethupathi – Atlee delivers a fitting second coming for SRK after a super-successful Jawan.
The visual effects did get a little extra but then one doesn’t blame a southern director who suddenly had The Big Daddies of Bollywood and Their Big Momma Gauri Khan on their side spending the money.
The female actors - especially the 6 squad ladies – Sanya Malhotra, Priyamani, Priyadharshini Rajkumar, Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, Girija Oak and Rutuja Shinde did put up a valiant fight. But their stories were not told in Shimit Amin style and hence lacked the emotion we experienced when a Komal Chautala passes the ball to a Preety Sabharwal or a Balbir Kaur pushes a Soimoi Kerketa to the ground.
No, the actors although finer and more experienced seemed to be a wasted lot of extra-excited college-time hackers. No Chak De happening here despite the many obvious tries.
Vijay Sethupathi, the less said the better. The actor who has brought a Vedha to life in a Vikram Vedha lacked lustre as he somehow grasped the bits sent his way by the screenplay writers as Kaali.
If only, you wished, the director gave the actor the screen time rather than the hyper-effect background score – the movie would have come alive in parts where we were more interested in our popcorn than the storyline.
We don’t know what Deepika Padukone was doing yet again as a special appearance. We wonder how many will she do before she lands up on the OTT like her counterparts, so we wont say much. We look forward to the Brahmastra prequel to understand where her plot lies – in the movie and in life.
But there is a bigger surprise at the end to which we’d rather let you watch the movie. C’mon for Shah Rukh Khan, go ahead. Do it. And the surprise appearances. It's not Salman Khan this time, we promise.
Listen, we loved the 3-hour shenanigans of a soldier who is playing Robinhood and the action does allow you to forgive the extreme prosthetics SRK brought himself to, to go from young to old to young to kid and then to grandpa… damn, too many transitions.
But…. Final words – it's an out and out Shah Rukh Dhamaal. And since other bigger movies like Salaar get pushed out to November, there is nothing more entertaining in the theatres like Fukrey 3 lands up. Take that extra refill of the Thums Up, you’ll thank us.
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