Star Cast: John Abraham, Sharvari Wagh, Abhishek Banerjee, Ashish Vidyarthi

Director: Nikkhil Advani

What’s Good: The intention

What’s Bad: The execution (pun intended, as we shall see!)

Loo Break: Whenever you feel

Watch or Not?: See Parmanu or the first Satyamev Jayate if you like John Abraham being patriotic in his movies

Language: Hindi

Available On: Theatrical release

Runtime: 151 Minutes

User Rating:

In regressive Rajasthan, a Dalit family is unduly (and unconstitutionally) harangued by the village Pradhan (Abhishek Banerjee), his son, and their cohorts. A disgraced army officer, Abhimanyu (John Abraham), who lands there for a job, decides to set things right.

Vedaa Movie Review Out. (Photo Credit – Instagram)

 

Vedaa Movie Review: Script Analysis

Aseem Arrora’s script is clichéd and absurd to the extreme. At the opening, the movie spends a good amount of time on an anti-terrorist action sequence that has little direct relevance to the main plot. Abhimanyu is court-martialled, dismissed, and having already lost his wife (Tamannaah Bhatia) to terrorists, is a bitter and frustrated soldier.

In a town in Rajasthan, a caste-driven ‘system’ is in place. Vedaa (Sharvari Wagh) is a headstrong Dalit girl wanting to become a boxer and has also studied law. Jitendar Pratap Singh (Abhishek Banerjee), the village pradhan (chief) is a tyrant who thinks that caste discrimination and gender inequality are both ordained by the Heavens. He appoints Abhimanyu as the assistant boxing coach, and when Vedaa refuses entry into the training club, Abhimanyu secretly coaches her.

Vedaa’s brother happens to fall in love with Jitendar’s daughter and the couple elopes. The upper caste Pradhan doles out summary capital justice and his people chase Vedaa and sister Gehna. Vedaa is convinced by Gehna to run away (as “both cannot escape the goons”, director God alone knows why!) and Abhimanyu and she escape in an unused and decrepit (for five years!) ambulance that still has sufficient fuel!

While their destination is Vedaa’s uncle in a distant village, the gang chases them, and John, as Abhimanyu, singlehandedly tackles them all. The uncle (Kumud Mishra) has, however, sold out his conscience to Jitendar’s men (and the police force that is under Jitendar’s thumb), and it’s trouble time again. Meanwhile, Vedaa has to keep reminding Abhimanyu (who is completely disillusioned with the ‘system’) that she wants to reach a specific court where she can file a legal case. She knows the legal nitty-gritties, see?

After much mayhem and brutality, they reach there, but so do the ‘baddies’. Jitendar, his uncle, and (is it?) brother have no qualms about exploding bombs in the court. The judges seek cover in a room!

Absurdities upon absurdities abound over the earlier quantum of absurdities. Arorra does not bother with logic, so that’s fine! But he does not worry at all about making sense either, for all the villains have been killed by Abhimanyu even as the judges accept Vedaa’s case. What’s more, Abhimanyu is stabbed, shot, and socked again and again but still survives until he meets justice to Jitendar and the gang.

So why is any case needed if violence alone is the cure? Speaking of violence, Vedaa barely uses her boxing skills to tackle the villains.

The title and its suffix, Vedaa—Samvidhan Ka Rakshak, has been coined by a group of people who also do not respect (besides the ticket-paying audience and, in effect, the Dalits) our national language’s grammar. This phrase, which means Protector of the Constitution (Is Vedaa one at the end??), should have correctly been Vedaa—Samvidhan Ki Rakshak, right? And why give ticket-paying audiences the delusion that Vedaa was another name for John rather than for Sharvari?

Vedaa Movie Review Out. (Photo Credit – Instagram)

 

Vedaa Movie Review: Star Performance

Sharvari Wagh is strictly okay as Vedaa, but after we have seen her potential in The Forgotten Army, Munjya, and Maharaj, I can only pity her as it is the director and scriptwriter who let her down. As the title role player, she is handicapped more as an actress than as Vedaa, a Dalit, because of harebrained writing!

John Abraham indulges in some fierce action and tries to show the fire in his eyes and expressions, but it is the actual action that saves him. It’s high time he quit doing a chain of terrible movies under the label of Deshbhakti. Choosing good patriotic films obviously does not come ‘pat’ to him!

It is Abhishek Banerjee who dominates with his quiet and menacing villainy. He is tremendous as the absolutely heartless man who wears a plastic smile whenever it suits him. Ashish Vidyarthi is wasted. I liked Tanya Malhara as Gehna. The others mostly ham to the hilt.

Vedaa Movie Review: Direction, Music

The director has clearly learned nothing from his multiple calamities as a director, and D-Day was the only exception that proved this rule.

The music is humdrum, even the item song “Mummyji”. “Holiyaan” sounds good only when on.

Vedaa Movie Review: The Last Word

If you read the fine print, this film mocks the Indian Army, the cops (none are shown as upright!), the constitution, the courts, and not to mention the Dalits, whose real-life cases are claimed to have inspired this dull motion picture whose camerawork too is dark and depressing! The extra half-star is only for the Dalit cause!

One and a half stars!

Vedaa Trailer