Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor’s Bawaal review: Lessons of life learnt through World War II

Language: Hindi

Director: Nitesh Tiwari

Cast: Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor

There are very good films and there are very bad films. But Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor’s Bawaal was just a good film. At first sight it may just appear to be a movie about love, ego clashes, family drama and chauvinism, but it is not as simple as it appears to be. Rather it is much more complex than that. It’s all about making your own image and when your outer appearance tries to take control over you and in the process crushes the emotions of everyone around you.

A love story with a twist, where the male chauvinist Ajay (Varun Dhawan) tries to put Nish (Janhvi Kapoor) down every single time and doesn’t consider her to be a human and feels that he has just obliged her by marrying her. He even goes to the extent of calling her a ‘defective piece’.

Janhvi has truly grown as an actor and the film choices that she is making needs to be appreciated. Her effortless innocence shows through her eyes. Through Nisha (Janhvi Kapoor) we learn that it’s okay to be vulnerable sometimes and okay to have imperfections. Whereas Ajay is shown as a narcissistic history teacher who reconnects with his wife on a trip through Europe and realises that there is more to life than the fake outer image.

The story starts with Ajay (Varun Dhawan), a grade-school history teacher zooming in his bike and the people around completely awestruck with his personality. His only agenda is to look smart and dashing and that’s all he cares about. He is impeccably with the perfect body and the only thing that he is interested in is maintaining his image. He is not interested in his job, not interested in the future of his students and most importantly he doesn’t know much about the subject that he teaches.

Ajay (Varun Dhawan) is ashamed of his wife because she has got epilepsy and doesn’t take her out because he is afraid that if she gets her fits in front of others that would tarnish his image. He maintains a distance from his wife and doesn’t have any physical or emotional attachment with her. When Ajay is suspended from work, he decides to go on a Europe trip and teaches his students from the World War II site, which is where the real story and the transformation of Ajay starts.

I am not saying that Bawaal is a movie that doesn’t need to be watched. But at the same time, being a Nitesh Tiwari film, I believe that it could have done better. Despite all its drawbacks, one takeaway from the film is that it’s okay to be an average person with imperfections, than to be a fake person.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Bawaal is now showing on Amazon Prime Video