Director : Atlee
Writer : S. Ramanagirivasan, Atlee
Dialogue Writer : Sumit Arora
Cast : Shah Rukh Khan, Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupathi, Priyamani, Sanya Malhotra, Girija Oak, Lehar Khan, Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, Aaliyah Qureishi, Sunil Grover, Riddhi Dogra, Seeza Saroj Mehta, Deepika Padukone, Sanjay Dutt
Cinematographer : G.K. Vishnu
Editor : Antony L. Ruben
Production Designer : Muthuraj
Music : Anirudh Ravichander
Sound Designer : Kunal Rajan
Language : Hindi
Jawan is not just a film, it is a statement. It is strictly average though. The messaging is on point. The issues are so relevant. A mainstream film talking about such issues shows that SRK is an actor with a spine. He minces no words. The message is loud and clear. I would say make reels out of these portions from the film especially the monologue where SRK is explaining the importance of your vote. Make him the face of India. Spread these messages as much as possible. Make them viral. At the end of the day, Jawan is every citizen of this country, the common man. Ask questions from the people in power because you have the power. You cannot be a freaking slave to any political leader. It has to be country over politics.
It is a very important film. I hope SRK is able influence the masses in the right way. It is not just about SRK’s song, dance and action. It is about where our country is headed. The solution? Use your finger to vote. Each and every issue portrayed in the film hits you hard. The pre-climax monologue sums it up all with the solution. The monologue was the hardest I clapped during the film. It deserves all the claps and whistles. After the monologue I would say, SRK for PM. There is a reason why the name of his character is Azad. Samajhdaar ko ishara he kaafi hai. It is no coincidence that all the messaging part in the film is done by Azad. Azad is you; Azad is me; Azad is us; are we really Azad? It is a patriotic film.
Apart from the messaging and talking about relevant issues, Jawan is a hit and miss film. Atlee’s direction is bad. Not a film that keeps you engaged throughout. Remove the issues and messaging the film will fall flat. It has purely worked because of SRK’s brand value and stardom. It has given a clarion call to the Indians to unite. Atlee and SRK both deserve to be praised for their courage. The only reason why I feel the film has been setting new records at the box-office. It is the beginning of the winds of change for our country with the 2024 General Elections being just a few months away. SRK is leading from the front. This shows that an average film made with the right intent can work wonders at the box-office.
The writing and direction is very convenient. Everything happens very easily because the director wants it. Too much is crammed up in the film. So much is mixed up that it hardly gives any time to properly explore the characters or the relationship between them. Even the gang of girls with Azad is hardly explored. Instead of using them only for action, it would’ve been better if they were explored as characters. There is hardly any emotional connect with the film or the characters because the drama is also taken to the extreme. There is nothing in-between. Even the characters are either black or white. There are no grey characters. The reason why it remains superficial. Some scenes feel out of place; they don’t connect properly to the events happening before and after the scene. If feels as if the makers wanted to add a particular element so it is there irrespective of the logical progression of the sequence or the narrative as a whole. Same thing happens with the songs as well. Before the song Zinda Banda, Azad is giving a speech for the recognition received by his prison; it’s a serious speech and then the song is put in, which has no connection or relevance to the events that have happened before. The scene after the song is completely different; the recognition, the speech everything just vanishes into thin air. If it wasn’t so important why was the scene there in the first place? That’s why most of the scenes look half-baked. Some portions feel as if they are rushed into. The duration is too long. I wished it wasn’t so inconsistent. It holds on to your attention in parts the rest just seems as fillers. Nothing new. Everything you feel that you have watched it before including the drama. The only connect you feel is Azad and Vikram Rathore fighting against the corrupt system and holding the people in power accountable. The world of the film doesn’t look convincing. The director hasn’t taken the trouble to do basic research on the geography of the film. This happens when a director from South makes a film based in Maharashtra. It looks superficial and generic. Too many creative liberties botch up the film. The characters are also generic. There is no belongingness to a particular geographical location. That is where the makers play safe. On one side you are making a bold statement, on the other side you camouflage it with fiction. There is some fictional head of the state office. Is there anything like head of the state? Just call it the Chief Minister’s office and the person as Chief Minister. At the end of the day, he is the one who is to be held accountable. Why play safe when it comes to accountability? Such things water down the impact and the believability of the film. The director is clearly confused with what he wants to do. The world of the film looks like the director’s own la la land. It looks too created and artificial. The where? part of the film is a big full toss. For instance, Vikram and Aishwarya’s house is in a weird location somewhere in the forest. Aise kaunsa Jawan reheta hai? If it was the story of Goldilocks, it would’ve surely worked. Unless the director intends to give a message that the events happening in the film can only happen in a fairytale with no relation to the reality whatsoever. Then everything is justified. The film lacks believability and conviction.
The screenplay is weak. The characters are as one-dimensional as they could be. More than the characters it is the actors who have pulled off the film with their presence. SRK is a prime example of this. The director just plays around with the exterior looks and presentation of the characters. Detailing in every aspect takes a back seat. There are many loopholes which make the film boring. A lot of editing was required. First, at the scripting level. All the songs could’ve been edited. They literally serve no purpose but add unnecessary breaks in the narrative. The picturisation of the songs looks completely different from the rest of film. They look like chunks of music videos added to the film. The Vikram-Aishwarya song in the flashback doesn’t match with the timeline of the flashback. Looking at the song nobody can say that it is from a different time. That too it is in Punjabi. It puts a question mark on the location and the characters. The storytelling is bad. The director gets too indulgent, getting swayed away by SRK’s stardom. He clearly didn’t know how to handle it. The rest of the characters are given the least importance.
The songs are average. The only good song is Chaleya. The film had the potential of becoming a tightly edited classy Westerner without any songs. The Western influences are pretty apparent. I am sure the director is a Clint Eastwood fan. I feel the inspiration behind the older version of Vikram Rathore is Clint Eastwood. Even the main theme music of Jawan seems heavily inspired by the Clint Eastwood brand of Western Cinema like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More. Off late, I have been noticing Western influences in Anirudh’s music. First time I noticed it in Vikram, then in Jailer and now in Jawan. Anirudh’s music in Jawan is mediocre. Apart from the main theme music, rest of the background music is underwhelming. We all know what he is capable of. He can carry an entire film like Jailer on his shoulders. Somehow in Jawan his music doesn’t match up to his own standards. He has set the bar so high anything less than that feels underwhelming. The sound design is good. The sound mixing is very good. Nowhere does the film gets too loud with the audio. Commercial films have a tendency of being too loud with their audio which eventually gives a headache if the film is not good. The mixing is tastefully done.
The production design is below average. It looks fake and artificial. The portrayal of the government hospital where the health minister is taken, is way too extreme. I understand it must’ve been exaggerated to show the graveness of the issue. Thoda sa on-ground research karte better hota. Government hospitals itne bhi bure nahi hai. Atleast khandar jaise to nahi hai. Although the issues portrayed are 100% correct. Again, what location are you talking about? Location ka naam to screen pe aa jaata hai but how do you establish it visually? I couldn’t find the locations or the world of the film relatable at all. Mumbai bhi kaunsa wala Mumbai dikhaya hai? I travel almost every day by the metro. Mujhe aaj tak tunnel nahi mila. The funny part is I mostly take the metro from Chakala. I am glad the makers atleast got the names of the stations correct. A place like Chakala getting its due. The vfx could’ve been better. It is noticeable. The de-aging could’ve been done better for the character of Azad. The father-son age difference doesn’t look convincing. Visually it comes across as there is not much of an age difference between the father and the son. The establishing of the location during the beginning of the film looks low quality. It looks created. Even the fire in the beginning action sequence where SRK’s character makes an entry looks fake.
The editing is average. I found the cutting to be too fast paced in the beginning of the film. The director needed to be brutal with the edit especially where the duration of the film is concerned. It’s not that you have made a masterpiece for the audience to invest their 3 hours. How much of SRK can you indulge in as an audience? On the other hand, he is the one who carries the entire film on his shoulders. The scenes where SRK is not there are actually not very interesting. The cinematography is good.
The performances are average. Some of the casting is good, some just ok. Some characters look miscast. It is a celebration of SRK and all is fine. He should be playing more age-appropriate characters. As Vikram Rathore he is good. He looks too old to play the son, Azad especially when he is not in any disguise. Sadly, the big screen doesn’t lie. His age is visible on his face. He is still better as the young Vikram in the flashback. Somewhere I feel in his recent films he is trying very hard to impress. The charm of the vintage SRK is missing. I don’t think it’s worth to lose your charm in the process of looking young. He should be aging gracefully. The audience is anyways going to love him. Rajini Sir enjoys the same stardom, the same craze and the same euphoria even after playing age-appropriate characters on screen. The audience likes to accept their Superstar for who they are and not for who they can pretend to be. Also, SRK needs to focus on choosing good scripts rather than going behind directors who have delivered hit films in the past. He should be picking scripts that allow him to utilize his full potential as an actor. We all know what he is capable of. He has even given us a glimpse of it in Jawan. The scene where after hijacking the metro he is angrily talking on the walkie-talkie about the issues faced by the farmers which leads to them committing suicide, he gets emotional we see a tear rolling down his eye as he is talking the very next moment, he wipes the tear and his emotion transitions back to anger. This one particular portion is a masterclass in itself. The transition of emotion, dialogue delivery everything. Another thing I enjoyed is SRK’s swag and humour after hijacking the metro. He just takes it to the next level.
Nayanthara has a strong presence like a superstar. She is clearly underutilized as an actor. Her character is presented well. I wish her character was explored properly and she was given more screen time. Her character that is so important to the narrative in the first half takes a back seat in the second half. After giving her the introduction and elevation of a superstar, reducing her to a prop in the second half didn’t make any sense to me. Vijay Sethupathi is underutilized as the antagonist. We have seen him in Vikram and the terror that he can cause as the villain. Compared to that, what he has done in Jawan is nothing. He isn’t presented very well. His presence is not powerful enough as the antagonist especially the ease with which he is defeated by the hero in the climatic fight. I had very high expectations from him. He doesn’t make much of an impact as the antagonist. Priyamani, Sanya Malhotra, Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, Girija Oak, Lehar Khan and Aaliyah Qureishi have done well. Sunil Grover is promising. Riddhi Dogra doesn’t look convincing in the older version of the character especially as Azad’s foster mother. The make up done to make her look aged looks fake. You can tell from her face that she is actually not that age and is pretending to play the character. The inspiration behind the name of her character Kaveri amma is pretty evident. It reminded me of Swades (2004). The cameos are not well written. They do not feel very important. It is like any actor could’ve played the characters. They don’t add anything to the narrative. It feels unnecessary. Deepika Padukone is ok in her cameo. She doesn’t make much of an impact. It doesn’t even feel that she is playing a character, you see her as Deepika Padukone. She doesn’t look convincing as Azad’s mother. I found her cameo boring. If the character of the mother was like the one in K.G.F: Chapter 2 it would’ve been more impactful. Sanjay Dutt is also average in his cameo. He has looked good though. I liked his presence. Unnecessary humour takes away the seriousness from the characters. Sanjay Dutt goofing around with the nayak-khal nayak reference after his character is introduced is so cringe. I mean it’s a serious face-off and the character is singing, “nayak nahin khal nayak hu main.” It is not even funny. A Special Task Force officer goofing around with such dialogues is lame.
Atlee does a good job of presenting SRK on screen with the various looks and disguises. Right from SRK’s introduction to the elevations work well. The interval block is terrific. The treatment of the film is ok. There is no one particular treatment. I could see it oscillate between being dark and bright. The songs have a different treatment. The treatment in the beginning of the film seems inspired from Japanese Cinema. There are multiple styles that look inspired from the West. Some of it works well. Then there is the warm tone of a Westerner. There is no one cohesive vision or a visual pattern. The action is average. It is very convenient. Everything happens very easily. It needed better editing. Some action sequences felt long; the duration felt more than what could hold your attention as an audience. Some of the fights are well choreographed. The fight in the climax is boring where both the father-son are beating up the villain. That is the most uninteresting action sequence with unnecessary humour. It is the least impactful. The villain is not even trying to put up a tough fight. Both the father-son are goofing around and very easily defeat the villain. I wish it was a continuation of the badass Vikram Rathore from the interval block. It should’ve been a serious and stylish fight sequence, something worthy of the climax. The climax is bad.
Jawan is a one-time watch for those who understand the message given by the film in one viewing. For those who didn’t understand the message or maybe were too ignorant to take it seriously, the film can be watched multiple times till the message is hammered in your brains.
About The Author
Aaditya Bagwe
Aaditya Bagwe is a filmmaker, writer, director, producer and actor. The founder of Infinite Eight Filmverse. He has been writing about films since 2015. A film school graduate in BSC in Film and Television Production with specialization in Direction. A diploma holder in Acting. He has done a short course in Film Appreciation conducted by FTII. Formerly having worked with Pop Diaries as a film review writer. He brings to you his multiverse of writings about films, web series and the entire cinematic universe.
