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Earthsky Pictures and Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment’s Bawaal is a love story with a difference.
Ajay Dixit (Varun Dhawan) is a self-centred manipulator who is very image-conscious. Although he is a history teacher in a school in Lucknow because he is not qualified to do anything more than that, he would have people believe that he gave up becoming an IAS officer because he’d rather make many more IAS officers than just be one himself. He gets married to Nisha (Janhvi Kapoor) who is smarter than him, just so that he can flaunt her to boost his image. But an incident shakes him so badly that he is unwilling to even accept her as his wife, much to the unhappiness of Nisha, her parents and even his own parents.
By a twist of circumstances, he is forced to take Nisha to Europe. In the foreign land, he visits places of historical significance during World War II, from where he keeps posting videos explaining what all transpired there during WWII. These videos serve to educate his students about the War. How this trip changes his attitude towards wife Nisha forms the crux of the drama.
Ashwini Iyer Tiwari has written a story which is very different from the routine love stories one sees in so many films. The backdrop of the World War II and how the happenings during that dark period impact the lives of Ajay and Nisha have been beautifully written by screenplay writers Nikhil Mehrotra, Shreyas Jain, Piyush Gupta and Nitesh Tiwari. The drama in the first half is fairly entertaining but moves at a somewhat leisurely pace. However, once the focus shifts to Europe, it entertains thoroughly. The speech by the World War II survivor and the entire gas chamber experience are highlight sequences. In fact, the post-interval portion underlining the analogy between the lives of Ajay-Nisha and the prisoners of war is terrific and gives a peep into the genius of the writers. The dialogues, penned by the four screenplay writers, are extraordinary gems.
Varun Dhawan lives the role of Ajay. His transformation from being a self-centred image-conscious manipulator to becoming a real human being is wonderful. Janhvi Kapoor shines in the role of Nisha, especially in emotional scenes in which she makes fantastic use of her voice modulation abilities. If only Janhvi were to work equally hard on romantic and light scenes and her dialogue delivery in those scenes, she can take giant strides in her career. Manoj Pahwa is terrific and supremely endearing as Ajay’s father. Anjuman Saxena lends fine support as Ajay’s mother. Pratiek Pachori is outstanding as Ajay’s bosom pal, Bipin. Mukesh Tiwari stands his own as the MLA. Shashie Verma lends lovely support as the school principal. Gunjan Joshi has his moments as Ajay’s colleague who can see through Ajay’s fake image. Vyas Hemang is pretty entertaining in the role of the gaudily-attired Gujarati man, Kalpesh. Agrim Mittal leaves a fine mark as Ajay’s street-smart student, Papon.
Nitesh Tiwari’s direction is phenomenal. His juxtapositioning of the modern-day dynamics of a married couple and the happenings of the World War II is sheer genius. Not just the thought but its execution also is brilliant. Music (Mithoon, Tanishk Bagchi and Akashdeep Sengupta) is melodious but the songs are not very popular. Lyrics (Kausar Munir, Manoj Muntashir Shukla, Arafat Mehmood and Shloke Lal) are weighty. Bosco-Caesar’s choreography is alright. Daniel B. George’s background music is remarkable. Mitesh Mirchandani’s cinematography is just too lovely. Stefan Richter’s action scenes are thrilling. Aditya Kanwar’s production designing is of a high standard. Charu Shree Roy’s editing is super-sharp.
On the whole, Bawaal is a beautiful film which will find huge appreciation on Amazon Prime. No doubt, it will be loved more by the classes than the masses but the fact remains that it is a wonderfully written and excellently made film.
Released on 21-7-’23 on Amazon Prime.