What is the purpose of big cinema? Is it not to help us dream of a world that is better than today? Is it not to give us a collective moment of catharsis as we beat the injustice in the world and its perpetrators? Is it not to feel that we are all a small part of a large movement? Is it not to laugh at all the imperfections we live with, in ourselves and in our society? Is it not to cry at the pain and suffering we see in our lives and all around us? Is it not to get entertained despite our intellectual pretences?
Jawaan, then, is as on-the-spot big cinema as it gets.
After the first Bollywood blockbuster of the year in January, with Pathaan, SRK proves he is King Khan, once again, with the next biggest grosser of the year. It seems like the older he gets, the more jawaan his impact.
The story revolves around the emergence of a masked vigilante super hero, Vikram Rathore, who stages heists and attacks in public spaces, with the sole purpose of avenging wrong doings by people in power against ordinary citizens. SRK, as Azaad, the progressive jailer of a women’s prison, is of course this saviour, who with his team of 6 women (wrongly accused and imprisoned) plans and masterfully executes each of these missions, winning public adulation, even as the good cop Narmada Rai (the gorgeous Nayanthara) tries to unsuccessfully catch him every time. The plot thickens, as the connections of Azaad’s quest for justice intertwines with his own personal backstory of injustice done to his father (the Indian soldier Vikram Rathore, also played by SRK and his mother Aishwarya, played by Deepika Padukone), that have led to their subsequent brutal deaths. As, the story further complicates with Narmada falling in love and marrying Azaad, and the re-emergence of senior SRK (with memory loss!), and the bad guys (Kalee played by Vijay Sethupathi) getting even, it all leads to a final (predictable) climax of good winning over evil, and a satisfactory take away message for all of us.
SRK and Tamil director Atlee, hit a master-stroke in getting the right balance of evoking emotions of social issues from recent memory that many in the audience would be feeling and seething about. Farmer suicides, Big corporate frauds at the expense of the public, capital cronyism, and in general the overall rampant corruption in public goods and services like the medical system and even military purchases. The film further cleverly ties the last issue deeply with our collective and nationalistic solidarity with Indian soldiers (“jawaan”) to get the right emotions flowing, as we continue cheer for the film. And finally, landing the big message that underlines the very being of democracy (serendipitously timed ahead of the national elections next year). Of who we vote for and why.
This mixed with the some really good action, typical Bollywood one-liners and a whole lot of SRK in double role, both as an old man and as the jawan-man, makes for a full-on high octane entertainer, with not a single dull moment.
What is really interesting to witness and perhaps why the film is seeing the success it is, is an organic merging of Hindi and South Indian cinema making. The film would make a whole lot of sense even if it was made in Tamil or Telugu or Kannada. We’ve seen lots of South Indian cinema being popular across the country now. And similarly a lot of Hindi cinema going pan India. But Jawaan is unique because it is not one or the other, but both in its very being. Shah Rukh is both SRK and Rajnikanth at the same time. The action, with its heightened blood and gore is both Bollywood and Tollywood together. The drama with all its exaggerated tone is both North and South. The messaging, with a mild anti-corporate, a mild left’ish stance amidst a largely well-to-do urban and well-dressed characters, again speaks of both worlds together. In creating this potential mixed breed of story-telling, Atlee has definitely invented something new. That is hitting the spot, and actually multiple spots in our minds and hearts.
All in all, a thoroughly entertaining film, as we see SRK getting older and perhaps a little bit wiser, moving on decisively from his erstwhile romantic hero mantle (passing it on to the Ranveers and the Karthiks of the world) and realising his next calling of being the action saviour for a world that needs one.
To save the world. To save us. To save Bollywood.
Amen!
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