Jawan Movie Review: Shah Rukh Khan’s Film is The Big Statement he Never Made in The Aryan Khan Case

Jawan makes you wonder if Shah Rukh Khan is more than a phenomenon, a true blue artist who gets more creative with his films - now more than ever!

Jawan honest movie review: Shah Rukh Khan makes the whole world look grander in Jawan. There’s extra of everything – emotions, melodrama, romance, action and even him. If you ever thought Pathaan was the most extravagant SRK could go on screen, Jawan changes all of that. This time though, it’s not just an action film with some massy dialogues, it’s SRK’s clear and loud take on what happened to his family – what the world saw and hawed over and how he dealt with it: the Aryan Khan case. It doesn’t hit you at first but as the story progresses, you read strong notes on corruption, bureaucracy, broken system and loopholes in the law. And just like that, Jawan becomes a political commentary on people being wronged by everyone, from ministers to doctors and cops. That it shows innocents being punished, humiliated and attacked for nothing while their families suffer – is not just a coincidence. It takes you back to the chats you read with SRK begging for his son’s safety, and an untainted future. Only this time, he shows how to fight it like a true blue Bollywood hero, the one who depends on his six-pack abs as much as he believes in the support of his team and the use of technology.

Every scene in Jawan becomes a grand entry for Shah Rukh Khan. He plays a double role – Jailor Azaad and his father, ex-army man Vikram Rathod. Azaad works with a team of all-women fighters (Sanya Malhotra, Priyamani, Leher Khan, Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, and Priyadarshini Rajkumar) – each with an emotional story of her own being a victim of a corrupted system. Everything they do is to give justice to more people like them with a cleverly designed ploy by their chief, the new Robinhood of this world. They loot the high and the mighty to pay the loans of the farmers, and extort money from the ministers to revamp the rotten government hospitals. Their life motto is simple: follow the chief and stop the riches from getting richer. But, what they are not ready to deal with are the entangled new relationships and the flashbacks from the past which become more important than the present.

Atlee has a giant canvas for everyone to simply stand tall with Shah Rukh Khan. The action scenes have the director’s signature stamp but the chemistry is all SRK. You see a gorgeous Deepika Padukone lighting up the screen in close to 20 minutes appearance and feel lucky to be living in an era where you get to absorb so much elegance and beauty altogether. Not to miss a whole three-minute song totally dedicated to the sheer magic of SRK-Deepika’s romance. While Vijay Sethupathi as the menacing, powerful, and corrupted Kalee is the second-best thing (first is SRK’s double role) about Jawan, nobody, not even him, has a lot to do in the film except being around SRK to make him look more heroic than ever. Nayanthara, as the no-nonsense cop makes for a refreshing distraction but not for long with SRK returning to take the limelight every other minute. He is fighting in a village, on the road, inside the jail, in a moving train and at a hospital – and winning everywhere. Everything and everyone is simply powerless in front of him. So much so that even the head of the state figures his manipulations and demands are justified, and an official calls him the messiah who’s killing the soft terrorism in the country.

The story of Jawan keeps shaking. It doesn’t follow one narrative. It goes on to become a family revenge drama from a vigilante story. You see a lot of loopholes but don’t mind as long as you have SRK saving the day, mouthing dialogues like ‘Bete ko haath lagane se pehle, baap se baat kar.’ And it only gets bigger with the very smartly placed reference to ‘Simba and Mufasa’. Again, it’s difficult to simply read that as a coincidence when you know SRK and Aryan are celebrated as the same Simba-Mufasa duo from ‘The Lion King’. You also get striking attempts to show women’s empowerment – not in its entirety but then, any attempt is important and appreciatory.

Jawan is a party where you celebrate Shah Rukh Khan’s courage, fandom and strength as a superstar. It offers never-seen-before gut-wrenching moments. It makes you realise the crazy influence of the masala cinema on your mind and heart. At its best, Jawan is the Diwali of the year 2021 that Khan never got to celebrate with his Simba. Happy Diwali, then!

Stars: 3