Bawaal Review: Unique and must watch romantic drama in the shadow of World War 2
Bawaal Movie Rating: 3.5 Stars
Just watched Bawaal movie on Prime Video. Let’s focus on the complete details, story, positive/negatives and at last my personal view on this movie.
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, Manoj Pahwa, Anujman Saxena and Mukesh Tiwari
Director: Nitesh Tiwari
Release Date: 21st July 2023 on Prime Video
Story: Set in Lucknow, movie revolves around Ajay Dixit aka Ajju (Varun Dhawan) who is a hotshot middle school teacher. He has faked his way through life and is about keeping up appearances. For him, image is a serious matter and in order to be placed above everyone at school, he creates a fake perception about himself.
He marries a full-of-life and bright girl Nisha (Janhvi Kapoor) because a trophy wife would be good for his image. But Ajay witnesses something on their wedding day that convinces him Nisha might tarnish his perfect image. So, he bars her from stepping out of the house and mistreats her at home.
An incident at his school leads to his suspension with pending disciplinary action. To evade this, he decides to deflect everyone’s attention and complete his history syllabus on World War II by conducting classes from the holocaust sites in Europe. Since his parents fund the trip, Nisha joins him, too.
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.
Positives
1. Performances
2. Direction
3. Story
4. Dialogues
5. Climax
6. Screenplay
Negatives
1. Length
2. Music
3. Few portions of 1st half
Durgesh Tiwary’s View: When I watched the trailer of this film planned to watch this movie on premiere day because loved the director previous movies.
A history teacher and his newly wed wife from a small-town in India face a troubled relationship while honeymooning in Europe, as they learn about World War II.
Bawaal story 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. 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 prisoner 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. What started with an underwhelming and confusing trailer turns out to be one of the most mature, sensitive and cathartic take on relationships and acceptance. Nitesh Tiwari direction is phenomenal. His juxta positioning 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. The World War II sequences are a testament to what Varun Dhawan can bring to the table if he gets the right script and director.
On the flipside, it suffers from the problem of duration. It gets unnecessarily long. The last 5-10 minutes which are set in the school, seem underwhelming and extra. Songs are good but could have been more memorable. The movie’s build-up is a tad sluggish, and it spends too much time overexplaining Ajay’s fabricated image and how he mistreats Nisha. Some tracks are long-drawn and lose the punch after a point—like a Gujarati family constantly passes packets of dry snacks to each other on the plane or when Ajay erroneously ends up at an opera instead of a museum. It’s difficult to digest that Ajju is able to pretend that he’s teaching history well and the principal or the management don’t even have a whiff of it simply because he is able to create a mahaul about it. This along with the fact that Ajju not knowing about the viral video is difficult to fathom since he is quite concerned about his image.
It is an explosion of unique ideas and unconventional execution. The concept is deep but not preachy. Overall, if you are looking for quality content which entertains as well as makes you think, then look no further. It is worth watching for World War II history, especially the recreation of the holocaust, and Varun as well as Janhvi’s stellar performances. My view on this movie Highly Recommended with your loved ones.
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