Vanvaas Movie Cast/Actors: Nana Patekar, Utkarsh Sharma, Simratt Kaur Randhawa, Rajpal Yadav, Ashwini Kalsekar, Shruti Marathe & others
Vanvaas Movie Director: Anil Sharma
Vanvaas Movie Production House: Anil Sharma Productions & Zee Studios
Vanvaas Movie Release Date: 20th December, 2024
Vanvaas Movie Available On: Theatrical Release and (likely to be released on Zee5 OTT Platform)
Vanvaas Movie Released/Available In Languages: Hindi
Vanvaas Movie Runtime: 2h 40m
Vanvaas Movie Critic Review:
The core premise is potent with possibilities for an empathetic experience.
When elderly Deepak Tyagi (Nana Patekar), battling dementia, is abandoned in crowded Banaras by his hard-hearted family of three sons and their wives, his journey back home and comeuppance for the callous is an emotional space.
Co-writing with Amjad Ali and Sunil Sirvaiya, director Anil Sharma places the family property named Vimla Sadan in a picturesque, snow-laden Palampur in Himachal Pradesh. Tyagi has plans of turning it into a trust. His sons and daughters-in-law who want to get their hands on the money, would rather desert him in faraway Banaras with no papers to identify him than let him sign the deed.
It is tough for a man with memory lapses to survive.
Orphan Veer (Utkarsh Sharma), a smart-talking fake volunteer, has conned Tyagi out of the wad of notes his family had left in their father’s satchel. Tyagi wanders around, his mind going back to the time his sons were kids, asking for help to find his missing children. His own name and address, he cannot recall.
It slowly unfolds that he’s immensely knowledgeable, speaks English fluently, is obviously well-educated and he’s trained for combat. Verbal and physical.
The revelations come in chaotic Banaras which is overrun with indifferent, caste-spouting policemen, thieves, conmen, kidney chors and dancing girls wearing jeans and brief navel-displaying tops.
The good part is that Anil Sharma strives to make a valid point about familial equations. The backdrop is scenic, the music (Mithoon) listenable. Sharma also makes the dementia believable, the mind fusing out at times and bright as a button at other moments. Tyagi’s crisis management skills that come to the fore unexpectedly are also neatly written into the screenplay. Also relatable is the scene at home where the siblings spar when they see a fat cheque coming into the family and the lengths they’ll go to, to get the lion’s share.
Where the storytelling falters is in the high-volume verbosity of the Banaras mandli. The circumstances may be heart-tugging but right from protagonist Tyagi, the non-stop talking overtakes all else. Tyagi himself is so full of high-flowing, unending, gyaan-spouting dialogues that he’s tiresome instead of being endearing.
Veeru, singing ‘Geelimaachis’ with item girl Meena (Simratt Kaur), her mausi (Ashwini Kalsekar), a motley crowd of cops and several sidekicks including fellow orphans like Rajpal Naurang Yadav and a height-challenged buddy, raise the decibel levels all around.
In an era where a vibrant social media exists, the inability to get Tyagi home (even after his surname is revealed), the many unnecessary stops (kidney thieves, flashbacks at a post office), the multi-tracks that briefly sketch the orphan and his girl, topped with the verbosity of all the characters, overshadow the emotional kernel. At the end of the clutter, not that it is important, you don’t even know who Deepak Tyagi was – a retired army man, a commando, a disaster management specialist?
Also, from the Mala Sinha days of Zindagi (1976) to Rajesh Khanna’s Avatar (1983) and Amitabh Bachchan’s Baghban (2003), the neglected parent with an orphan coming off better than greedy, biological children, has been a familiar cinematic sight.
Nana Patekar does well but his loud character doesn’t make a strong emotional connect. Khushboo Sundar, making a surprise appearance as his wife, is a welcome visual. Utkarsh Sharma has an interesting but seen-before role, bringing in youthful energy along with Simratt Kaur.
Vanvaas – Watch Or Not?: It’s an overlong and loud watch.
Vanvaas Review Score Rating: 2 out of 5 (i.e. 2/5)
Vanvaas Movie Official Trailer:
Credits: Zee Studios
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