Vedaa—Samvidhan Ka Rakshak is pretentious, violent and senseless

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The late Manmohan Desai used to send logic on a long holiday, But only to entertain his audiences. He never pretended that he was a social messenger, doing his bit to improve society. Decades later, men like David Dhawan, Anees Bazmee and Rohit Shetty followed his blueprint.

With director Nikkhil Advani here, the case is way different. The man selects a genre that is essentially all about unlimited action and violence, makes it look like a film making a powerful social statement, and does not bother about either logic or plain common sense. What’s more, as per what I hear, impressionable young film critics, mind-blown by uber-violent movies like KGF 2, Jawan, Animal and Kalki 2898 AD, are finding this movie impressive too.

For starters, the film shows the heroine, Vedaa (Sharvari Wagh, in a terribly-scripted character that mauls her acting abilities that were in inspired form in fine work like The Forgotten Army—Azaadi Ke Liye and Maharaj) wanting to fight the evil of Dalit victimization through a court case. But Abhimanyu (a fierce and disheveled John Abraham doing his umpteenth terrible deshbhakti film after the brilliant Parmanu and the decent Satyameva Jayate) has exterminated all the villains by the time the judges take up her case. So who will the case be filed against??????????????????????????????????? (That’s not a typo, but my ‘logical’ frustration, folks!)

Never mind that vital point, if you wish. But in this long, senselessly violent and violently senseless journey of an excruciating 150-minute duration, the script insults the Army, the cops (not a single one is upright!), the courts (anyone can go and explode grenades there and judges can take terrified cover in a locked room!) and finally make the discerning viewer cringe with the sheer brainless skullduggery that is going on!

And what was the Dalit Vedaa’s fight originally all about? Principally, she wanted to learn boxing, while her brother chose the village Pradhan’s daughter as his objet d’amor. Due to her caste, she is forbidden the first, while the Pradhan (Abhishek Banerjee doing a brilliantly menacing turn, the only bright spot in this orgy of darkness) delivers capital punishment to Vedaa’s brother and his own daughter.

And where does Abhimanyu come in? Well, he is a depressed and disgruntled army officer who is court-martialled as he killed a terrorist against his superior’s orders. And one reason why he did it was because his loving wife (Tamannaah Bhatia in a cleavage-revealing cameo, a cool chick in wintry J&K!) was brutally murdered by the extremists. Thanks to some ‘uncle’, he is given employment by Pradhan as an assistant boxing coach. Vedaa, who has studied law intricately, also wants to be a boxer, and Abhimanyu stays awake nights to train her almost into a champ in skills, when she is not given official sanction as she is a Dalit.

And where does all this lead? Vedaa spouts law provisions, but also weeps each time she is in trouble with the Pradhan’s cohorts. Actual boxing and Vedaa? Come on, you’ve got to be kidding. She just maims a key Pradhan acolyte with five boxing punches, and then goes on to cry, howl and cling to Abhimanyu who merely gives expressions that are supposed to be full of lethal rage but only serve to spotlight his stubble.

The cinematographic standards in Hindi films have been terrifically improving since the 1980s and 1990s but one fails to understand why this dull film should have photography that is almost Grayscale! The music is never commendable in John’s solo films (after his association with the Bhatts ended with Jism, Saaya and Paap) and this film is no exception. The director, in any case, never gave us good music after Kal Ho Naa Ho and D-Day, which remain also his only quality cinematic products.

What else is there to wail about? Wail…Oops!…Well, I have mentioned how this film disrespects so many aspects. But yet another affront is on Hindi, our national (just like the Army, cops, and courts) language. Grammatically, the title should read, Vedaa—Samvidhan KI Rakshak (Vedaa, the protector of our Constitution) and not Vedaa—Samvidhan Ka Rakshak. But two points here: Vedaa does not remotely protect our constitution here, and the second, even more lucrative one—why tell audiences the truth that Sharvari is Vedaa and not John? Would a newbie like her attract the audience? Ahhh…therein lies the strategy. After all, South movies as well as past Hindi films have had such names for their action heroes!

Rating: *1/2 (Just About!)

Zee Studios, Emmay Entertainment’s & JA Entertainments’ Vedaa—Samvidhan Ka Rakshak  Produced by: Umesh KR Bansal, Monisha Advani, Madhu Bhojwani & John Abraham  Directed by: Nikkhil Advani  Written by: Aseem Arora  Music: Amaal Mallik, Manan Bharadwaj, Yuva & Raghav-Arjun  Starring: John Abraham, Sharvari Wagh, Abhishek Banerjee, Ashish Vidhyarthi, Tanya Malhara  & others Sp. App.: Tamannaah Bhatia, Mouni Roy & Kumud Mishra