Film Review: Dasvi top? Ah, not really!

Dasvi

Dasvi
On: Netflix
Dir: Tushar Jalota
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Yami Gautam
Rating: '1/2

The state this film is fictionally set in is named Harit Pradesh, although it's decidedly Haryana, where the sitting Chief Minister lands in jail over a scam, while his wife (Nimrat Kaur) takes over reins of power - that, in turn, hearkens back to Lalu Prasad Yadav's Bihar, from the '90s. The piece of fantasy within all of this, I suspect, is that the said, imprisoned, de-facto CM gets treated like any other inmate, within the jail compound; thrown into manual labour, etc.

Because the officer-in-charge (Yami Gautam; think of her as Kiran Bedi) is a strict stickler for rules/protocol of sorts. If only the public perception on the independence of bureaucrats (state police, included) was anything close to what we watch in this movie. Like Lalu, who's more recently faced much rougher terms in jail, since not in power - maybe the lead character should've been cast as an opposition leader, rotting in prison, instead. But you needn't pain yourself looking too much for realism here.

This is more of a self-aware, simplistic, pot-pourri Bollywood pic, with songs, comedy, emotions, et al - presumably aimed at a theatrical release, to be consumed by a collective, that's made it directly to Netflix, though. You sense a lot of Mumbai movies straddling between this confusing cinema-OTT path, lately - something that South/Hollywood blockbuster releases hardly suffer from. It's a phase, I guess.

Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan plays the incarcerated CM, Ganga Ram Chaudhary - more specifically modelled on Haryana politician, Om Prakash Chautala, I suppose. Bachchan himself is in a phase of his career, where you see him prolifically changing all possible stripes for a role - in ways that he hadn't quite leaped the same way, over two decades that he's been around. As in, heading right over from a Bengali serial killer (Bob Biswas), into a Haryanvi Jat from the heartland here. He clearly has the look and physique for the part.

What he convincingly adds to it is an understated swag, with sufficient twang - noticeably, never using expletives as a convenient crutch, or missing an obvious beat, or ever overplaying a note. In fact Bachchan, in a novel role, might be the only reason to even sit through this entire film, since that piques some curiosity, surely. As for his self-deprecating character, who goes, "Padha likha Jat. Solah duni aath. So don't be smart." Think I've heard a better joke from a Jat friend that goes, "Bin padha Jat, vidwaan. Padha likha Jat, bhagwaan. (An uneducated Jat's a scholar; an educated one, God!)."

This gentleman, it appears, plans to go straight from borderline illiteracy, to sitting for the tenth standard board exams, in a few weeks/months flat. How that's even possible is beyond me. More unclear (to me) still is exactly what's the massive inciting incident, or irrepressible trigger, that's made him attempt this feat, struggling behind bars. A lot of ‘failaoed raita' follows from this point onwards, down to the politician's wife getting jealous, because a woman administered her husband CPR, to rescue him from a heart attack - she sees something sexual in it!

No, seriously: what's in those board exam books, that the hero develops ‘chemical ka locha' in his brain, and he starts imagining himself inside the freedom movement - in black and white, like Rang De Basanti (2006)? Instead of only seeing Mahatma Gandhi in his midst, like Munna Bhai in Lage Raho (2006). In fact Rajkumar Hirani's Munna Bhai MBBS (2003), with an adorable idiot for a readymade template, is more evidently the inspiration, if not the tall ambition, behind this picture. There is even a sweet sidekick called Ghanti, in place of Circuit. That means only one thing.

This is a well-meaning movie alright, trying to be equally ‘atrangi' and entertaining at the same time. Full marks for taking the tough exam. Which is attempting a huge leap of faith, really; hoping audiences come along. Frankly, studying for tenth boards might appear less tedious than this test of patience, sometimes.