In the first half of Bawaal directed by Nitesh Tiwari, one cannot help but rejoice at the sight of a film that challenges a conventional narrative. I was looking forward to the scene when someone would spring the line, “are we not many Hitlers.”
The intrigue begins with Ajay (Varun Dhawan) who is so obsessed with his appearance and respectfully built reputation that everything else, including the truth, seems dispensable to him. For some reason Nisha (Janhvi Kapoor) manages to worm her way into his heart and he views her as his ideal partner.
The twist always seems to be just minutes away, but the success does not quite seem to come, and one begins to wonder whether he is or was even close to the ideal that was put on Nisha: Nisha becomes sick and has high temperature, this portion completely ruins all of his strategies whereby he declares that she is not allowed to ever leave their residence. He is made to look somewhat less intelligent and ambitious than Nisha; he works as a history instructor at the school but goes there on most of the days in a daze.
Eventually, news or circumstances force them to embark on a journey across Europe. While there, Ajay seeks to redeem himself in some way by trying to impart knowledge to his students about Adolf Hitler during the Nazi era of the Second World War.
The start does make sense if you manage to suspend your disbelief and accept the narrative. This takes that fairy tale of marriage which is always ‘happily ever after’ and goes towards how deeply scars domestic violence goes within someone.
The second half, however, does not fair as well as the first half. As expected, Ajay never had any interest in history or what history has to offer; history was never Ajay’s strongest subject. Nisha generally has a more intuitive way of understanding people and more importantly, the aftermath of war crimes.
Ironically, one would expect never to feel this way, never feel ‘out of place’ if one is always looking for recognition, and affection in his marriage which has been strained on his orders and authority to the extent of saying she can never accompany him anywhere but their house.
This is where some of the Nitesh Tiwari and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s touch peeks through in some scenes.
Ajay undergoes a shift in his character as he daydreams and is actually in the heart of WW2 history; he finds himself in some of the most notable places, for example Anne Frank’s house, or the Normandy Beach.
Which is a bit too much considering the horrifying imagery of the D Day landings during Operation Overlord 1944 where Allied forces attempted to land on Omaha beach in their fight against Germany only to result in heavier losses, why must Ajay and Nisha meet again in Auschwitz gas chamber.
A man’s ego for the fact that he destroyed his marriage is not quite comparable to the events during Holocausts as they are too off input; however, if it needs makes sense if at all then there needed to be some sort of class which this movie does not have.
Yes, there still exists evil in this world – this is something that anyone can confirm just by the news. It is dipping into the plank too much to claim “Hitler was greedy for this or that, he wanted more.”
Bawaal’s drawback instead, is how the actors are always struggling to impart texture to their roles. There is Varun Dhawan, as Ajay, and he is so right in what he does, it’s irritating almost; yet, for me, that is those words in his favour because it means he was just doing his job. Fortunately, they are pretty much together.
In Janhvi Kapoor, who plays Nisha, has a character that she struggles to make much of, which is unfortunate given how little was developed. But what she does bring to Nisha is this kind of spirit that makes you want to support her and root for her most of the time.
She smiles, hiding feelings of frustration behind her ears while taking in the picturesque scenery of Europe for the first time outside four walls after almost a year of hibernating. It is at such times that the film hints potential – really, it just wishes her to leave this marriage and be blissful somewhere else.
Manoj Pahwa and Anjuman Saxena, Ajay’s on-screen parents, completely steal the show with their cuteness and make you wish the plot leans more towards their parenting struggle.
Pratiek Pachori, as Ajay’s friend, is the performance that I will take home. There is no reason for him to not steal scenes with everything he says being this genuine.
Certain scenes work very well like Nisha and her mother discussing what she is doing wrong in the marriage and there are some that don’t work so well like the one where Ajay and Nisha get close over Amsterdam in the night.
Bawaal is a film that reeks of self grandeur: it tries to say that from the second act and on it may not be written well, at least the nice shots make up for it but in the end they don’t even redeem themselves in that sense.
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