Jawan (2023)

Jawan has been watched. Despite the blatant plagiarism accusations, the reason for Atlee to be one of the top directors and to work with top actors is his presentation style that appeals to the general audience. Jawan is nothing new from Atlee that would leave the Kollywood audience tiring but the Bollywood audience would and are enjoying maximum 'cause this type of commercial flicks are new to them. I swear, some Hindi audiences in the theatre were applauding for the "A film by Atlee" title card at the end.

Jawan is the usual action commerical potboiler from Atlee that mashes up age old Shankar films into one but fails as they feel plastic to the core. The biggest positive to the movie is King Shahrukh Khan. The massiest star I have seen on screen, on par with Rajinikanth. The way he oozes swag with a simple cigarette and guns is unbelievably incredible. Jawan can be considered as a celebration of the star SRK as he shoulders the movie entirely. He acts, fights, laughs and even sings in the movie, a complete performance from the Basha of the Bollywood.

Nayanthara as the lead heroine was splendid. I believe Atlee has cast her in the role as a penance for wasting her in Bigil. Deepika Padukone despite being a cameo steals the show with an effective performance. Vijay Sethupathi is the antagonist with a role that he would ace in his sleep. The writing is very caricaturish and one dimensional for the villain. VJS tries to bring the ruthlessness with his performance but only succeeds partially.

Not just the villain, the writing in the entire movie is sub par. There's zero emotional connection and there's hardly any smart writing that would make us go wow. The film follows an extremely cliched plot where we could see the "twists" and "turns" from miles ahead. The movie is sure to become a blockbuster but Atlee the director is not getting any better. The cringe in the first half was unbearable. If not for a better second half that had some good mass moments, this would have been a worse flick than Bigil.

Technicalities are one of the saving grace of the movie. Anirudh continues his carry job from Jailer this month as well as he tries to make the audience feel the emotion with his score. The songs are okay albeit offering nothing new. The camera work was stellar and so was the cinematography of GK Vishnu. It brought the grandeur on screen that was missing in the script.

~𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹, 𝗮 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸. 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗳𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗥𝗞.

#Jawan