Jawan Review (SPOILERS): Hopelessness is the Enemy of Justice

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I saw it a second time last night, with a big group of people who all gave their opinions on the ride home, and now I have slept and processed and I have allllllllllllll of Saturday to write this review and really try to dig in to what the film was saying.

Whole plot in 3 paragraphs:

This is hard! The movie is so well constructed with so many beautiful twists and reveals. I think I’m just gonna have to straighten it out and tell it straight through.

In the 80s, SRK is a commando married to Dips and is sent in with his team to rescue hostages taken by Sikh terrorists (yes, Sikh, I paid close attention and I am sure. Plus that would be historically accurate for the 80s). On the mission, their guns fail and some of them are killed. Shahrukh makes a fuss and gets a trial held for Vijay Sethupathi, the gun dealer who sold the guns to the government. He humiliates Vijay, proves the guns are faulty, and gets Vijay’s company banned. In vengeance, Vijay comes to his house and kidnaps him, leaving behind corrupt cops to plant fake evidence that SRK was selling state secrets. Deepika kills the cops (because she’s super cool) and is arrested. But before she can be hung, the jail discovers she is pregnant. She gets 5 years to raise her child before she will be killed. Baby SRK is raised in a woman’s prison, told the story of his father and the corruption of the government, and told to defend all the women in prison who are innocent like his mother. After Dips is killed, Baby SRK is adopted by the female warden and grows up to become the warden himself. And then, after 12 years as warden, he and a handpicked crew of 6 prisoners turn into terrorists, hijack a train, and demand a ransom for the college student daughter of Vijay who they know will be on the train. SRK uses the ransom to pay off farmers loans and talks about how the government and the banks forgave a MASSIVE loan of Vijay’s, and yet farmers are dying because of these tiny amounts that banks won’t forgive. As an example, he tells the story of one of his commandos, whose father killed himself after the bank took away his tractor. Nayanthara, top cop negotiator, coordinates the effort to try to capture SRK, but fails, he and his girls disappear into the crowd and then return to prison.

SRK and the girls continue to pull off elaborate heists in order to achieve social goals (for instance, kidnapping the health minister and denying him medical treatment until all the government hospitals in India get the supplies they need). But meanwhile, his foster mother has arranged a meeting for an engagement. Only instead of the woman showing up, it is a little girl looking for a husband for her mother so she can have a Papa. SRK is immediately charmed by this little girl and wrapped around her finger. And then meets the Mom, who is Nayanthara. Although it is a TERRIBLE idea to get engaged to the cop who is chasing him, they fall in love/like at first sight, plus there’s the kid, so they get engaged. But on their honeymoon night, Nayanthara gets a police sketch from her job that looks just like him and realizes he is the terrorist, at the same time armed gunman burst in and kidnap them. They are beaten and interrogated until they are rescued by….Dad SRK!!!!! He still has amnesia, but one of the kids from the village grew up and became a cop in Bombay, recognized terrorist SRK, figured out the whole “his wife was put in prison and his son grew up to be a warden and he is a long missing commando” thing, and not only brought Dad SRK to help but also the remaining other old men of Dad SRK’s 1980s commando group!

After they are rescued, terrorist SRK is whisked away by Dad SRK and the commandos and Nayanthara returns to the police, furious. She intends to go undercover in the prison to learn more about SRK so she can arrest him. But when she hears his whole story from the prisoners (Dad wrongfully accused, Mom arrested, raised in jail, etc. etc.) she has sympathy. And then the cops pull her out of the cell and she learns her second in command, Sunil Grover who did a really good job, is actually working for Vijay. He set them up on the honeymoon night, and now he is going to torture and kill the commandos until they tell him where SRK is. Also, he’s kidnapping Nayanthara’s daughter. Big fight during which one of the commando women gives her life to save Nayanthara, Son SRK breaks into the prison to rescue his wife and his team, Dad SRK and his commandos track down and rescue Nayanthara’s daughter. Nayanthara, after all of this, is converted to their cause and ready to help. But meanwhile, Vijay has made a deal with a bunch of international industrialists to buy the Indian elections so they can continue to use India as their dumping ground for toxic industries. To stop him, they have to capture his convoy of trucks full of money. They succeed, only Dad SRK is captured by Vijay’s men. Son SRK goes back to the prison where Nayanthara and her team have brought the spoils of their mission, hundreds of voting machines. Cop Sanjay Dutt shows up to negotiate and SRK threatens to destroy the machines, which would delay the elections indefinitely. He will release them only if the “head of state” (very careful not to give a more specific job title) signs a document closing 40 factories around the country. This happens, Vijay shows up with Dad SRK, father and son fight VIjay together and in the process Dad SRK gets his memory back, and then Son SRK gives an impassioned speech to the nation asking people to please THINK before they vote, ask questions of the candidates, consider facts. Happy ending cut, both SRKs plus Nayanthara and her daughter and all the commandos are enjoying life in some sunny European city. And Sanjay Dutt shows up and reveals he was working with them all along, providing info and assistance. Happy Ending Song!

That is A Lot of plot!!!!! It’s amazing, Atlee got in all that story, plus half a dozen songs, plus awesome action/heist sequences, in just three hours. The film is PACKED. I kind of thought it would be, knowing it was an Atlee film, and that Atlee was a Tamil director. I’m used to that in Tamil films, especially the action movies, there is just sooooooooooooooooooo much pushed in to one small movie.

Which makes sense if you look at the history of Tamil cinema (yes, most of this comes from Iruvar, don’t judge me! It’s a good movie!). The biggest political charge in Tamil Nadu is to protect their language. Films in Tamilian, that’s the modern impactful way of keeping the language alive. And so films have always been political, going back to the 1950s. At first it was just actors giving endorsement to parties, and scriptwriters writing scripts that hit particular political points relevant to the current elections. But then actors started running for office themselves and suddenly a movie wasn’t just a movie, but also a position statement and a political promise. It is so normalized that even in films that don’t star actor/politicians, the actors will have lengthy speeches directly to the camera giving specific political opinions. And I mean SPECIFIC, another Atlee film has a looooooong speech critiquing the new General Standard Tax laws.

Tamil isn’t the only political film industry in the south, Telugu now also has star/politicians, as does Malayalam film. But Tamil was the first, and, I think, it permanently effected the structure of how Tamil films work. That story on story on story structure, that came about because people wanted to address a variety of political points in one movie, while still making it entertaining. And the darkness, that too. Tamil cinema doesn’t run from the dark, it embraces it, it says “this is the problem, look at it, don’t turn away….and now I will give you the solution”.

It’s still political propaganda of course. I watch all Tamil films with a large grain of salt because the actors are politicians, they want you to vote for them, they will twist reality in a way that makes you think they can save you. There’s a great Malayalam film specifically about this, Kammara Sambhavam, about a group of liquor barons who decide to start their own political party in order to control liquor laws, and their first step is to hire a scriptwriter. Because politics begins with one really good movie to sell yourself.

But Hindi film has never really played that way. Probably because it was too closely watched by the Centre. Tamil cinema, that is local parties battling it out between themselves. But Hindi cinema, if it chose to turn its eyes to politics, it would be a National concern. And so there is the soft power and soft propaganda, talking about broad stroke theories like Individualism or Communalism or The Free Market, not specific issues or specific parties. And certainly NEVER blaming the government for anything! The last truly radical political film I can think of from Hindi cinema was Rang De Basanti, and that was so remarkable in its strong stance that it fired up a whole mini-political movement. Oh, and also Bhavesh Joshi Superhero, but no one watched that.

And now we have this movie, which is a combo of the soft message of Hindi film and the Hard message of Tamil film. This movie shows the daily death and misery of the regular Indian citizen brought about by rapacious greed and a government that doesn’t care to protect them. But the only “message” it is trying to give the audience is to demand more, to demand better.

The whole film is structured to support that message to the common citizen. For instance, Old SRK and his friends are living good small lives right now, they fought battles as young man in many ways, when their world was different. But that doesn’t mean they get to stop now. They may have just been brought into this campaign, but if they agree in their hearts that it is a right and just cause, they have to fight for it. The young women, they have been hurt by life already in a variety of ways, but they are still young enough to be hopeful and happy and shake off any trauma, and they are using that youth to try to help the world. Young SRK, he is educated and successful and he is doing a lot of good in his chosen area just as warden of the jail. But that’s not enough, as a citizen he needs to do more, to look beyond himself and try to fix things for everyone. No matter who you are in society watching this movie, there is a call for you to do better, be better, try harder.

The heroes of this movie are from all places in society, but the victims are all innocent bystanders. Soooooooooooooooooo many dead children in this film. Which works both as fact (yeah, kids die a lot when medical care sucks and pollution runs rampant), and as metaphor. These are the most powerless people in society, the ones who a community should be protecting the MOST, and their deaths show just how broken the system is. No one can argue that a CHILD brought this own themselves, made bad choices, should have done better. No, this was done TO them because there was no one there to protect them.

For me personally, I love the message of this movie because it is the message I most care about. Once again, SRK=me. I’ve talked about this a lot before, I am a fan of SRK not just because I like him as an actor or whatever, but because he has a personal philosophy apparent in his films, his interviews, how he lives his life and it matches my personal philosophy and values. I believe in democracy, I believe that voting and paying attention to elections, big and small elections, is how you bring change in the world. I do NOT believe in NGOs. Like, I know they exist, but I do not think it is right or even possible for a non-governmental organization to provide basic services. A charity should not be running schools, hospitals, mail services, any of that. So many Hindi films lately have had a soft message of “fix it yourself” and that makes me ANGRY. NO! It is not my job to fix climate change all by myself! It is not my job to provide toilets or sanitary supplies and go to the moon (AKSHAY!!!), that is the government’s job. My job is to hold the government accountable for their failures, to try to fix them. One person cannot fix a whole society, no matter how many speeches he gives (AKSHAY!!!!), you need a large bureaucracy to get moving and DO something.

I can give you two examples, little micro-local examples, that just came up for me this week. The local city representative one ward over is insanely corrupt, like he was being investigated for ethics violations while he was running for re-election. And he still won. Because he puts his name on the right events, he shows up to the right places, and people didn’t bother to think past that when they were voting. Infuriating. And second, I was reading an article about a group that’s trying to help the migrants in my ward. They are really struggling and what they asked for was not more donations or volunteers, but for people to please please please CALL their representatives, this problem is too big for this group, or any group, to solve but the government has the tools and the power to do something so long as the people demand that it does.

That’s what Shahrukh is saying in this movie. It’s a huge message of faith and hope. No problem is too big to solve, not if we pull together and demand the organizations that are already in place actually come in and solve it. Just, believe.

Bryan Stevenson, an American civil rights lawyer who fights against the mass incarceration of Black Americans, has this quote which has gone a bit viral lately:

It’s not a pie in the sky hope, it’s not a preference for optimism over pessimism. It’s just an orientation of the spirit. I think we have to be willing to believe things we haven’t seen. That’s our superpower…And so, I think hopelessness is the enemy of justice. I think injustice prevails where hopelessness persists. And so, hope is our requirement, it’s our superpower.

https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/living-black/article/bryan-stevenson-hopelessness-is-the-enemy-of-justice-hope-is-our-superpower/8t0eu6mno

That’s what this movie is saying, and that’s what Shahrukh is saying. Just, Hope.

(footnote: I want to point out that this is also what Shahrukh did during the darkest time of his life. When Aryan was wrongfully arrested, he put his faith in the system and believed it would work. And it did. Eventually. So hope works, and SRK does as he says).

39 thoughts on “Jawan Review (SPOILERS): Hopelessness is the Enemy of Justice”

  1. It is hard to believe that a system that put innocent people in jail for extended periods of time “works”. And YES I know that can be applied to America too.

    So my favorite SRK from the previews, the bald SRK on the train, is actually the YOUNG SRK pretending to be old as a hijacking disguise? Oooh, that is twisty.

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    • Yes! Young SRK disguises himself as an old man, and Old SRK actually is old. The result is poor real life Actor SRK only has to wear youth make up a very limited time.

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  3. It’s not just hope, I think…it is being fearless despite the fear, believing in what is okay in a system even if the system often fails…not only pointing the finger on what is wrong but making the choice for betterment…
    Yes, the movie explores the star, the one in his thirties and the one in his sixties…and Atlee made one of SRK’s dreams into an exciting reality – being an out & out action hero combined with being a women’s man cum kids lover and an intelligent thinker with an ironical humour plus acting in a meaning- and powerful story with a (new) signature gesture.
    SRK’s breathtaking entry scene and the one before intermission are both Dad, the Jawan…SRK-Robin Hood has his entry scene with the metro and – in his warden avatar – with the speech and dance.
    One part, he shot during the Pathaan time with the Pathaan long hair, so he has even more than four different looks…

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  5. I want to say that as i watched this movie as a woman in and of India – I felt really hopeless. I also felt put out by how at the end it was the many men settling the score while the women were locked up. This felt so frustrating and a let down.

    In the time I stayed in Mumbai, one would think the women don’t exist in the workforce. In staying at the hotel and taking transport to places, everybody i was paying my money to was a man. The women were nowhere to be seen receiving money. I gave these big tops in some places but all to the men.

    Then i read the news of how a week ago a 23yo woman was murdered in her home by a cleaner who took out the garbage, who was employed by the building.

    I was reminded of why i left India and what I can’t want go back to.

    When i was watching the movie at Gaiety, there were women sitting next to me and one of them said how she brought the other to the film because she’s a Shahrukh fan and casually mentioned how the fan got slapped by her husband for her fandom.

    The women’s rage is real for me but I don’t think the women in India even are able to / allowed to / feel entitled to feel it.

    And Jawan too put them in cells when it was action time. Sure it was plot. But it put me off.

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    • I agree that it followed the southern film pattern – for the movies that have strong female roles – the women get strong, complex characters, good screen time, and character development, however the plot and resolution revolves around the hero and the final fight scene is always hero only. My friend who came with me called this out too.

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        • I’m not an expert at all, just the pattern I’ve noticed from the movies I’ve watched. I get excited in the first half about the potential of the female characters, and then the second half plays out with the hero front and center and the women fade to the background.

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        • Yeah, that makes sense to me too. They are such Star Vehicle movies, I wouldn’t even say that it is about not letting the women do stuff, it’s about not letting ANYONE do anything except for the hero. Compared to other star vehicle southern films I have seen, SRK really stepped backa nd made space for other characters. But the end fight, that was also gonna be hero on villain

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  6. That was a wild ride! When the trailers didn’t reveal any plot I expected something twisty and a little off the wall. I did not expect full bore justice seeking political exposé. I agree 100% that it hits harder than Pathaan and I love your point about how he’s speaking through his films. It feels like this SRK persona he’s worked for all these years, and built up into a powerful icon, he’s now putting the persona to work for him, to say the things he needs to say in a way that will get people to lower their defenses and listen. Besides that, I loved watching his performance, he looked amazing and the details that made the different characters were subtle but made them each distinct individuals. Did you see in the end credits song, Azad and Vikram are dancing the same steps side by side, but Vikram holds his shoulders slightly slanted and it makes them move differently? I liked the rest of the cast a lot – Deepika and Suji were my favorites – and the action was nonstop and creative. The train scene at the beginning was just about perfect from beginning to end. The final fight had guns and acrobatics and, as my 13yo pointed out, the rules of gravity ceased to apply. In the middle, the fight scene at the hospital had Nayanthara vs. SRK with some killer knife moves. Also, old dudes on motorcycles, one with a sidecar dropping road tacks, loved it.

    The only scene the 10yo was asking me about afterward was the opening scene in the village. But in his head it was OK because Vikram reanimated and saved almost everybody and defeated the bad guys. I think a lot of the other darkness flashed by so quickly it didn’t stick with him, he doesn’t have enough context yet. Though they were both mad the dog got killed. Rio!

    Thank you for that quote, it’s just right. People only have power when they have hope.

    Don’t you think they’re in Cuba at the end? The Spanish song, the cigar, the old timey car.

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    • Yes! Young Vikram is so different from Azad, even though it’s the same actor playing the same age.

      My friends were also upset with me about the opening scene! I had truly forgotten about it and promised them that all the child deaths would be Social Ills and not direct violence. But yes, Vikram comes back to life, and then they are all fine, so it’s okay.

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      • I was comparing the opening scene to Legend of Maula Jatt, which also had some brutal village attack scenes. But in that cae, there wasn’t always a hero to swoop in and save everyone.

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  7. Heck yeah, Margaret! So glad to see you get a little political, though it would be hard to avoid in a review of this movie. As someone who has worked for NGO’s for 25+ years, I couldn’t agree with you more on that point. It’s always an uneasy sense of trying to help where one can, while agitating for systemic change, while being aware that NGO’s prop up unjust systems by easing the pain just enough to prevent all out revolution. Sigh.

    The movie: what a blast! I can’t wait to get back to the theater to see it again. We got plenty of funny, energetic, crinkly-eyed, swoony SRK along with the action stuff. Daddy Shah Rukh (I mean that in every sense, lol) from the interval on is my favorite look of his for a long time. This is an overstuffed burrito of a movie but it tastes so good. Hubby and I laughed, cried, and hooted along with the rest of the audience.

    I agree with others that having the women take a backseat at the end of the flick was annoying, but that’s hero-centric movies for you. I do love that Atlee and Shah Rukh brought back the angry young man film while subverting it too, making the point that it takes all of us to make change. I had hearts in my eyes all through the civics lecture toward the end and kept thinking how much applies to voters in the US too.

    Amazing supporting cast. My God, Deepika! I felt like Nayanthara brought her star power to bear but her character was so bland compared to both Shah Rukhs. Thankfully I can’t pick up on Hindi accents too much so that didn’t bug me with Vijay. How lucky he was to get beaten up by two Shah Rukhs! I think he had fun with that scene. Like Shah Rukh, he is very good at taking a beating on screen, lol.

    Thank you for the warning about the dark bits, especially the dead children and poor puppy. I think it fit in this movie. Jaby Koay said this movie was anime-like (as a compliment) and I agree. It didn’t shrink from those hard truths but presented them in such a heightened and stylized way that it felt enough removed for me to not get physically ill.

    I loved a couple of the songs and liked the rest. Anirudh’s beats and trumpet flourishes are unmatched.

    I kept thinking about the situation with Aryan too. Our man lives by his word and that is so rare.

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    • Yes with NGOs! Currently I volunteer delivering food boxes for a food pantry, and I find that the least depressing volunteer option I’ve had. Because this ONE PARTICULAR THING I actually think NGOs are needed for. It’s not even necessarily that the clients I deliver to can’t find another way to get food, it’s that they need home delivery and can’t afford/understand the for profit delivery systems. So fine, as a good neighbor I will take the food from the pantry to them. But if I was a regular pantry volunteer watching people line up just to get food for their family because the state doesn’t provide enough funding to fill all gaps, I would be FURIOUS.

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  8. I definitely did not go into the movie fully prepared for how dark and graphic it would get. I can see where it has elements of Chak De, One 2 Ka 4, and Dear Zindagi – all movies I really like. But personally, I would not go into Jawan thinking this movie was at all comparable. Those movies did not leave me emotionally and mentally exhausted by the end with graphic scenes that stayed with me long after the movie ended. To me, when I read the reviews and comments, I thought it would have sad moments similar to 70s Amitabh films with a social message – an angry young man with a sad childhood avenging his father and a corrupt government, but overall, an action film. It was not.

    If I were to describe this movie, I would describe it as a gritty social commentary with bits of really silly action thrown in there.

    With this movie, I really wish I had a heads up on all the graphic scenes. For example, we went to a Sunday matinee and were thus surrounded by largely Indian families with kids. One family left the movie midway because I am assuming their two children could not handle parts of the movie. (They are clearly not as tough as Emily’s children). And in the restroom after the movie and we found a mom consoling her daughter who was crying her little heart out going, “I am fine. I am fine, I am just really really emotional.”

    So, with that, I am going to list the graphic scenes here (as much as I can remember them) for anyone else who may find them helpful.

    This movie shows realistic and graphic images of the harms caused by a corrupt government, including the following scenes in order of appearance:

    – Opening scene shows a village being rampaged by terrorists and people dying, including children.
    – Farmer is stripped naked (with his genitals on display but blurred) by a government officer in from of his wife, grown up daughter, and the whole village. The farmer shortly commits suicide by hanging himself and the daughter finds him.
    – Man is shown being forced to swallow a poison pill die while bleeding through his nose and ears while his wife watches, so his newborn isn’t killed the same way.
    – While a government official is talking about improvements he has made to government hospitals, there are images shown of malnourished, screaming, sick, dying mothers, children, and elderly individuals. People are shown opened up on the operating table while the hospital remains ill equipped to perform the surgery or might possibly be selling their organs.
    – An viral outbreak brings 60 children to a government hospital, all in need of oxygen. Hospital staff is manually helping the children breath waiting for the oxygen which never arrives due to the corrupt government. All 60 children are shown dying through asphyxiation while the adults break down.
    – Multiple men break into a house and kill the dog. The dog is shown bleeding and dead while the women looks into its dead eyes and screams.
    – A mother is shown taken away to be executed by order of a death penalty while the child is screaming and crying. The woman is then shown being hung. (I almost didn’t include this scene in this list because while this scene was one of the saddest in the movie, it was not overly graphic in my opinion.)
    – A woman dies on a makeshift operating table after saving another woman’s life. Right before she dies, she flashes back to when she asked her children to hide in the bath tub, while bad men came after them, and then watched them drown and die.

    By the last scene, I literally had my eyes shut and my ears closed because I was so traumatized by the dog scene, and could not take another scene of children dying, so if the last scene is not accurately presented, I apologize.

    I will add that while I understand why the other scenes were needed to depict the harms caused by a corrupt government, personally, I thought the dog scene was absolutely gratuitous and did not add anything to the story line. We knew how evil Vijay was from the poison scene. Also, Deepika was already going to seek revenge against the bad police officers for torturing and taking away her husband.

    Okay, done. Since this is already a ridiculously long comment, I will post my thoughts on the movie and the message in a separate post.

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    • Thank you! This is such a comprehensive list, I’m gonna take it and use it for a special Trigger Warning post. FYI, the part where you closed your eyes was poison gas. You see the animals outside dying along with the people as a wind sweeps through the village. Seeing all the triggers listed out confirms for me, only the opening sequence and the sequence where Vijay attacks their house is direct human on human violence.

      It reminds me of Atonement, which I’ve never managed to watch straight through but also am glad it exists. It’s a WWII movie, but the horrific scenes involve trench foot and hospital deaths and all that ugly ugly stuff that is behind the usual Nice Clean Violence you see in movies. This film really hit hard that the worst things that happen are the dirty messy mass tragedies, not the big Bad Guy and Good Guy fights.

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      • Thank you for clarifying the last scene on the list.

        Also, interesting that you mention the opening scene and the dog scene being the only human to human violence because I almost didn’t include the opening scene in here. Not because it wasn’t graphic but somehow its impact wasn’t the same for me as the others. It felt a bit animated— almost Tarantino-ish. However, I noticed that others were bothered by it so I wanted to include it in there. And I already gave you my thoughts on the dog scene. I am not sure what this means but the two human to human scenes either didn’t have as much of an impact on me or just felt horribly gratuitous, where I didn’t see the need for it. But with the others I could understand why they were needed for the movie to progress.

        And yes about the comparison to Atonememt! Another movie which I can objectively say is a good movie but one I probably will never watch again. It has stayed with me looong afterward I first saw it and even now, I can probably remember every scene you are talking about just by closing my eyes.

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        • I noticed you didn’t include the flashback army scene at all either, and I agree with that. It was very Action Scene, and combatant versus combatant, instead of having that sort of lingering sorrow.

          Getting into the philosophy of the movie, I think part of what it was getting at is that Daddy SRK experienced this very direct form of violence, was a Jawan who had orders and went out and fought people. His action scenes don’t pack the same punch as the other scenes. While Azad experienced the messiness and injustice of everyday life which is SO much worse and more deadly. Also gets into the “feminized SRK” side of things. Daddy SRK lived in the Male Gendered world of violence, while Azad lived in a woman’s world in which right and wrong are a lot messier, and so often violence is done to them and they cannot fight back.

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          • You are spot on! I thought about the army scene and decided not to include it because I really didn’t consider it to have the same impact. It was an action scene. I felt like it was maybe expected if you think of this film in terms of an action movie? I don’t think anyone is going to get overly emotional watching that scene. And yes, the flashback storyline didn’t have nearly the same impact the current story line until Deepika got involved. Her scenes killed me because I could feel all the joy and sorrow she felt.
            Which goes back to your point of feeling the scenes so much more when the women were impacted, in the past or the present.

            Also, what a tremendous performance by Deepika!!! Her 15 minutes made more of an impact on me that anyone else. I will fight anyone on this but she was the true star of the movie! Give that woman 15 mins of screen time and she will rock your world!

            Separately, I am also a bit sad about not being able to enjoy Daddy SRK as much as I should have because I was constantly scared about what’s about to come next. Maybe I’ll just watch clips of Daddy SRK’s scenes on YouTube and enjoy it that way!

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    • I can’t remember where, but I saw another movie with faulty oxygen delivered to a hospital that killed a large number of children. So I looked it up and in 2017 at least 30 children died because a supplier cut off a hospital’s oxygen due to unpaid bills in Uttar Pradesh. It got a LOT of international coverage. And it makes we wonder, is there a true story behind every graphic ill shown in the movie? Probably.

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      • Oh there definitely is! I think that’s why it hits so much harder. Every government corruption incidence has its roots in an actual event.

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  9. I know there was a lot of hotness in the movie, but can we talk about Vijay Sethupati flashback look, when he is shown boxing? He was so handsome. The old Santa Claus look was stupid and also confusing for my son, because he looked different in every scene. But the young look? So hot.

    Also who are the actors who played Vikram’s Army friends? Are they really from different states?

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  10. SRK and Atlee did research work about all the incidents shown in the movie…
    1) It’s a Nepalese village that is raided by Chinese men (not army but like a mixed criminal group)
    2) The number of farmer-suicides has increased since then, but is rather accurate for 2019
    3)Also the number of rural hospitals or hospitals in poor parts of cities should be rather accurate and the difficulties to get supply which is stocked by those who want to make money of the need (the health system is as much corrupt as the police system)…especially during the pandemic the people who died because of lacking material was blatant and – in hindsight of the enormous Modi-fond – a crime to the population.
    4) The terror-group had been Khalistanis (Inner-India problem) and even in other encounters of Indian army with terrorists not-functioning arms caused many deaths.
    5) The Bhopal disaster had happened in 1984 in Madhya Pradesh but that did not stop to allow Indian and foreign investors to establish more chemical plants whith poor work-and safety conditions…
    6) Super wealthy businessmen dictating politics and politics supporting those businessmen isn’t an Indian thing only, but it does a lot of harm in India (Adani is a current example).
    7) The judiciary (especially the lower courts) is as corrupt as the police, so Dr. Eeram is just one example of people put in prison with false accusations.

    Vijay Sethupathi’s role was that of an evil man regardless his businesses and wealth (‘Santa Claus’!!!), so there had to be scenes accordingly: the red pills, the killing of a dog, the graphic talk with Aishwarya, the ‘Bahubali’ Murad, Kalee’s obvious pleasure to torture people, his distanced coolness and suppressed anger (blue pills). They are idependent of the criticism at the power-systems.

    Honestly, I could go on & on about the movie…sigh…

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    • Thank you! I thought they were Khalistan fighters! And I thought “yeah, that makes sense, that would be the mid-80s threat”. And the same with the raiders at the village, I felt like they were clearly not Army, with their mixture of weapons and uniforms. Again, mid-80s would have been an era of great confusion in China and along the border.

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  11. Of course, there is a lot of interpretation going on, mostly focussing on the thought that the movie is a ShahRukh statement about the Modi-government and the BJP. That’s, imo, the easiest way to put the film in a box and forget about it.
    No, the movie has another kind of message (the different incidents aren’t new to India, independent of political parties and the governments), it’s – like Margaret e.g. wrote – about the hope to make people more responsible for what happens in India through the votes, through questioning politicians, to use their democratic rights, to focus on issues that matter…through voting, there is the possibility of ‘together, we can move something in a -for India, for us – positive direction. (and the together is – clearly – with the same power for women than for men.)
    There is a YouTuber I often watch, Akash Banerjee = The Deshbhakt, who talks about Jawan (Hindi with Engl. subtitles)…I think, it’s worth a watch (I hope, it’s okay to post the link)…he starts with repeating the vote-message and also talks about the social incidents:
    “youtube.com/watch?v=6yLNzbU1Rv8&t=1s”

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  12. Just got back from seeing it! I enjoyed it…3.5 stars, I think. I liked Pathaan more, but neither will be more than a one time watch, I think. Maybe Pathaan when I need to do a Spy Universe marathon.

    General thoughts:
    -For such a convoluted plot, I thought it was actually well-written. Believable or rooted in reality…definitely not. But I get that this is a mass film and that’s not what you usually get.
    -Nayanthara didn’t do much for me, which was sad. None of the supporting women had enough to do and Lakshmi’s flashback was clearly cut from the film and you just have the flashes of her story at the end. Priyamani deserved more. Also wanted more about the adoptive mother/warden, too.
    -The little girl actress was great and my favorite moment was the joke when Daddy SRK sees her in the car.
    -Deepika is a goddess (but their song was the weakest in the film sadly).
    -Never put SRK in a cravat…it messes with his sex appeal in bad ways.
    -I can deal with violence and graphic deaths, but it was so much that it became desensitizing.
    -I would still watch a spinoff sequel that tells us the story of the three other women and features Kaveri leading them or a straight sequel with Azad and Vikram leading them.
    -Sanjay Dutt’s cameo was kind of unnecessary but didn’t bother me and the end credit scene totally reminded me of the end of Dhoom 2.

    Glad I saw it in the theater but there were only a few other people in the audience. Looks like my friend wants to see Great Indian Family in the theater so I’m excited for that one, for sure.

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    • I realized today that this post was a little superficial and want to reassure you all that I was moved (at times) and also had to process the messaging of the film. Going in to the film I was very spoiled about things and knew what it was going to be about, so I think I was also a little desensitized to the messaging. In the last few years, I’ve been prone to hopelessness about the political situation and social breakdown here in the US and this film didn’t necessarily rouse me to action (though I hope it did for others). I just think rushing through a series of society ills in the framework of (let’s admit it) a very ego-driven, though clearly personal and heartfelt, performance is not the most affective tool for change. Even in a place like India where movie stars are demigods. If I remember, Rang De Basanti inspired a lot of youth activism and I do hope Jawan does the same. But my cynical side doesn’t believe it will. Bleak as that viewpoint is.

      I think that’s why I chose to focus on the superficial reactions I had.

      PS I had a weird movie watching day. Jawan first show in the morning, then a friend and I watched the golden age MGM musical Silk Stockings with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse (absolutely loved it and could lead me to revisiting and watching for the first time a lot of classic Hollywood musicals). But what a change in tone. And then like at 11 PM last night I was wondering about how I would compare Jawan and Pathaan so I rewatched the latter, too! I definitely like Pathaan overall more, but after the Salman cameo, most of the rest of the film is so cringey in terms of the action that it is almost unwatchable. Really makes me worry about Fighter and what we’ll get there.

      Also just thinking about Deepika more…she was so incredible in both of these films and she’s possibly at the peak of her powers and beauty, yet she is picking very commercial roles lately (the Singham 3 announcement really surprised me though I am excited to see her opposite Ajay). Maybe it’s about capitalizing on her potential for big paychecks and blockbuster exposure so I get it. She’ll probably have a great “feminist role” as a pilot in Fighter but she’s not picking women-centric and true lead roles right now. Am I missing some announcements?

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      • Are there women centric lead roles available? Or any available in films that anyone will actually see? At this moment I would say that Deepika’s strength is that she is a great physical actress (she can make the fights look realistic) WHILE being great emotional actress as well. What she is doing now is bringing the emotion to the physical roles that would typically not have any. While Deepika’s emotion is really good, there are other actresses that can emote. I can’t think of another actress that can achieve what Deepika has physically. I adore Taapsee Pannu, but the one role I saw her in that required physical action she totally failed. Anushka, Katrina, I’ve never seen them in anything requiring jump kicks. So of course Deepika is taking these roles, she is the only one who can.

        But maybe she could start her own production company to get a film going where she is the true lead? It seems like that is what is required to get women-centric films made.

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        • Katrina has the physicality (she was pretty good in Tiger Zinda Hai in an action sequence and I wish she would be given more action roles). She and Deepika might end up sharing screen time in the Spy Universe movies which would be great. Of course, Katrina doesn’t have the emoting abilities that Deepika does.

          I think Fighter will be the big test for where she’s going with her career right now. She’s certainly the box office queen now!

          The women-centric roles are all on OTT and I don’t see her wanting to do those anytime soon.

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          • You’re right about Katrina in Tiger Zinda Hai! I forgot about that, which is kinda silly as it was the first of Spy Universe movies.

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