How not to make a change-of-heart film

Bawaal

Hindi (Amazon Prime Video)

Director: Nitesh Tiwari

Cast: Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, Manoj Pahwa, Mukesh Tiwari

Rating: 1.5/5

In ‘Dangal’ (2016), director Nitesh Tiwari and his team of three writers excelled at dramatising the real life story of two women wrestlers. Seven years on, with ‘Bawaal’ (Fiasco), the same team has come up with a pointless romance that unwittingly makes light of the worst horrors inflicted on humanity. How the mighty fall!

In Lucknow, self-obsessed school teacher Ajay Dixit aka Ajju Bhaiyya (Varun Dhawan) lives an unhappy married life with the smart Nisha (Janhvi Kapoor). She is epileptic. Ajju blames everyone but himself for his ‘miseries’. Circumstances lead the couple to visit World War II sites in Europe. How Ajju experiences a change of heart makes up the rest of the film.

Though the initial buildup works well for a comedy, the descent sets in soon enough. A few witty sequences do evoke laughs as Varun Dhawan pulls off his usual shenanigans. Janhvi Kapoor puts in an earnest performance, but the character written for her is confused.

The ridiculousness can be forgiven till it becomes problematic. A writers’ team that did wonders in ‘Dangal’, ‘Bareilly ki Barfi’ and ‘Chhichhore’ trivialises the holocaust, and ends up with dialogues such as “We are all a little like Hitler” and “Every relationship goes through its Auschwitz”. Does a man have to tour these war sites to realise how obnoxious and insensitive he is towards his spouse? An Auschwitz survivor recounting a story similar to the film’s protagonists and the recreation of a gas chamber scene plunges the film to new lows.

Thankfully, the film went directly to OTT and was not released at the theatres. We must thank the film makers for the money we saved, but who will compensate for a wasted two hours?