Bawaal stars Janhvi Kapoor and Varun Dhawan as star-crossed lovers. The film also stars Manoj Pahwa, Mukesh Tiwari, Anjuman Saxena, and Pratik Pachori among others. It is jointly produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari under their banners Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment and Earthsky Pictures respectively and has been distributed by Amazon Prime Video.
Plot
Bawaal follows the story of a history teacher Ajay Dixit (played by Varun Dhawan) who meets Nisha (played by Janhvi Kapoor). Nisha hails from a wealthy business family and suffers from epilepsy. The two fall in love eventually and decide to get married. On the day of their wedding, Nisha gets a major epilepsy attack. Ajay decides to become a better person after Nisha teaches him the details of World War II and all the sufferings of the Jews during that time. Several parallels are drawn from that era to the life of Ajay and Nisha.
Performances
Both Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor are often reliable and have proven their mantle as actors in their previous works. Bawaal’s saving grace is their acting chops. Varun plays the role of a history teacher with a lot of conviction and looks the part. He becomes a desi middle-class know-it-all male chauvinist. But the best part is the grey shade given to his character.
Janhvi, on the other hand, plays Nisha with conviction. Despite the lack of depth and screen time, she does justice to the character, especially in the scenes of epilepsy attacks. The film also has several other wonderful actors in supporting roles like Manoj Pahwa, Mukesh Tiwari, and Anjuman Saxena who all do their best to create an impact.
Analysis
The film has been shot beautifully by its cinematographer Mitesh Mirchandani. The beautiful contrast between the current times and the visceral black-and-white scenes of world war II blend perfectly well. Nitesh Tiwari has a proven track record of beautifully telling human stories that are filled with strong emotions. He does that again, successfully. The costume department has also done its job correctly, with Varun’s and Janhvi’s outfits clearly signaling their socio-economic backgrounds; so does the period-correct attires in the world war scenes. Bawaal has been written by many writers, four to be precise: Nitesh Tiwari, Piyush Gupta, Nikhil Mehrotra, and Shreyas Jain.
The end result is a tight screenplay that goes haywire in some instances but overall keeps the viewers engaged. The best part about this film is the inclusion of the epilepsy angle that hasn’t been covered in Bollywood yet. But sometimes it just feels like a tool to move the story further. Charu Shree Roy’s editing is a strong point of the film as its smooth, raw, and magical in different measures.
But probably the best thing is the film’s music, composed by Mithoon, Tanishk Bagchi, and Akashdeep Sengupta. The lyrics penned by Kausar Munir, Manoj Muntashir, Arafat Mehmood, and Shloke Lal are beautiful and haunting at the same time. Daniel B. George’s background score is really powerful and comes out of the screen in a way in some scenes.
Verdict
Overall, Bawaal is worth watching if are into stories that work like a soothing balm. It also raises interesting moral questions that we generally don’t see in Hindi films. Give it a watch, if you are into strong stories and incredible performances.
Rating
Rating: 4/5
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