A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
By Murtaza Ali Khan
Rating: 4/10
By Murtaza Ali Khan
The 2011 Indian anti-corruption
movement galvanized the Indian youth unlike any other movement in
post-independence India. The youth had had enough and finally wanted to see the
end of the deep-seated corruption that devoid the people from laying the foundation blocks of the India of their dreams. Alas, the movement died a slow
death, failing to bring about any major change! But, when everybody else seemed
to give up a group of Mumbai-based youngsters decide to take up vigilantism as
the last resort to fight corruption. That’s the premise of Vikramaditya Motwane’s
latest offering Bhavesh Joshi. Co-written by Anurag Kashyap, Abhay Koranne, and
Motwane himself, Bhavesh Joshi is produced by Phantom films and stars
Harshvardan Kapoor and Priyanshu Painyuli in central roles.
The first forty minutes of
Bhavesh Joshi set up the movie really well. Not only does the setup sound
promising but also the mood feels just right for a film that seems inspired by
graphic novels. Deep into the first half one starts hoping for a present-day Rang
De Basanti but then the film suddenly begins to self-destruct around the
halfway point. When such a thing happens as a viewer you are bound to feel
heart-broken and dejected; you start wondering what really went wrong.
Now, it can be said with some
certainty that the film majorly suffers because of poor plotting and weak
characterization. Imagine a character that is an ace coder and can hack into
almost anything. But he turns out to be even better when it comes to setting up
electronic circuitry. However, it is not electronics but mechanical engineering
that is his truly specialization as one learns when he builds a superbike for
himself from near scratch. But there is one thing that he lacks that is of
utmost importance to take up serious vigilantism: martial arts training. So a
teacher reluctantly trains him. All we see is acrobatics and various forms of
physical exercises. There is no talk of mental focus or emotional control over
the physical realm that’s the human body. It certainly looks a bit
disconcerting to see martial arts being reduced to a merely physical level.
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| Priyanshu Painyuli and Harshvardan Kapoor in a still from Bhavesh Joshi |
The conflict at the heart of Bhavesh
Joshi is water corruption. The influence of Roman Polanski’s Chinatown is
pretty obvious. The manner in which the lead character wears a bandage on his
nose and how a police officer tortures him while holding on to his injured
nose makes the Chinatown influence unmistakable.
It is a pity that these influences fail to add any cinematic value to the film.
Harshvardhan Kapoor, at this
point in his career, doesn’t seem like the ideal choice to play the lead
character in an action film and it shows throughout Bhavesh Joshi. As a matter
of fact, Priyanshu Painyuli, who plays his revolutionary friend, would have
actually been a much better choice to play the film’s lead character. It's a
really pity that it wasn’t the case. In terms of action choreography and stunts
the film is quite solid but the predictable plot and unnecessarily slow pacing
(at 155 minutes it is way too long) ruins the film completely. For the last one
hour the film seems to be really struggling to find some sort of a closure that
comes at least thirty minutes too late. However, the biggest disappointment of
the film, however, is Vikramaditya Motwane's uninspired direction which makes
an average screenplay look rather pedestrian. The end result is a self-indulgent superhero flick that lacks both spine and purpose.
Rating: 4/10
Readers, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving your comments. As always your valuable thoughts are highly appreciated!
Bhavesh Joshi - Trailer (YouTube)
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