John Abraham’s film occasionally manages to tide over its trough
New Delhi:
Several aspects of it The VedasA violent caste oppression thriller directed by Nikhil Advani from a screenplay by Asim Arora, sets it apart from Bollywood action movies. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its share of clichés. But by and large it has its heart in the right place. The Vedas A victimized young Dalit woman is placed at the center of the narrative and follows her to the bitter end. This is an undeniably big deal for a mainstream Bollywood film that has lead actor John Abraham on board as a producer. It is worth noting that he not only gives a large amount of screen space to his female co-star Sharvari, but also acknowledges the title of the film for the character essayed by her.
Also somewhat unusual is the fact that the playful titular figure, even when he has to rely on a tough-as-nails soldier-turned-boxing coach for cover fire, doesn’t shy away from jumping into battle.
He fights for his basic rights – equality and dignity. She is a law student and swears by the Constitution of India but what she does is not strictly by the book.
In light of the heinous crimes committed against him and his family, his survival strategy may not be as hard to digest as first flush. The girl has her back against the wall and is therefore forced to play by the rules set by the men who cast her out of her village.
Moreover, despite its admirable main objective, The Vedas To establish the bravery and heroism of an army officer who falls into the trap of kicking however fleetingly with Kashmir, PoK and terrorism who goes beyond his brief stint on a lifting mission.
The seeds of this construction can be found in two other films of Nikhil Advani, D-Day (2013) And Batla House (2019)Both were inspired by true events or real characters. The former featured a suspended army officer as a key character while the latter addressed the immense pressure that city police officers face in the course of anti-terror operations and later.
The VedasAlso, based on real events – killing of inter-caste couples ordered by kangaroo courts in the boondocks of North India. But the realism the film seeks to bring to the big screen is diluted considerably by the over-reliance on genre tropes it employs to tell the essential and urgent story of racial oppression.
The out-of-work soldier and the desperately wronged Dalit girl who knows her rights but is failed and victimized at every turn makes common cause against the village chief, her cronies and the police. They respond to the violence they suffer with more violence.
Terror in Bede originates from across the border as well as from a shockingly one-sided power structure in a lawless village where the police force does the bidding of a man who doesn’t follow any rules even as he pretends to be progressive when it suits him. him
The male protagonist, Major Abhimanyu Kanwar (John Abraham), is a man with a tragic past. He defied the orders of his commanding officer and brought down a wanted terrorist in Kashmir. It appears that there is a personal angle to the hatred he harbors for capturing militants alive. Abhimanyu pays a heavy price for his impulsive act: he is dismissed from the army.
Silent as the picture on the wall, the soldier returns to his wife’s village in Rajasthan’s Barmer district, where his father-in-law finds him a job as an assistant boxing coach at a local college. Abhimanyu is not suitable. During the game he saw the horrors of racial division up close.
When Beda Bairwa (Sharvari), a girl from a lower caste family, expresses her desire to become a boxer, she is given a bucket and a mop to clean the arena. But he refuses to give up. His persistence upsets the powerful, especially village chief Jitendra Pratap Singh’s (Abhishek Banerjee) younger brother Chance (Khitij Chauhan).
Abhimanyu sees the fire in his belly and takes Veda not only under his care but also under his protection. Another act of courage for which he will have hell to pay. He doesn’t flinch. He is determined to ensure that Beda reaches the High Court to appeal the trial.
There is more trouble for Ved as his elder brother falls in love with an upper caste girl. When things get out of hand, she has no choice but to flee the village with her tormentors and Abhimanyu by her side.
At the beginning of the film, the skeptic Abhimanyu asks Ved: Court Zakar Kaya Milega (What is the purpose of appealing to court)? You expect him to claim that legal aid will put an end to his misery. But he is clearly acutely aware that he has an uphill battle ahead of him. All he’s looking for, he says, is Ummed (Hope).
Using boxing as a metaphor for the heroine’s struggle, the film repeatedly mentions the five key punches of the sport – jab, cross, hook, uppercut and body shot. It showcases the full range as the bored girl doubles down on getting out of the ring in one piece.
The film, for its part, goes all out and throws a few punches in the right direction. Part of the war that goes overboard is its wages and ends up going a long way.
But with John Abraham as a fair-fisted and brawling ex-soldier who finds a new purpose in life and a consistently convincing performance from Sharvari, who immerses herself in a physically demanding role that requires her to cross a wide range of emotions, Ved occasionally finds her groove. Manages the tides on.
