You assume it’s a good film — it’s directed by Dangal maker Nitesh Tiwari and stars Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor — but within minutes, it starts going downhill and there’s no coming back. Bawaal falls into the category of films that you start watching and then struggle to stay on if you have to finish.
Varun Dhawan’s Ajay is an insufferable young man who’s popular as Ajju Bhaiya in his hometown, and struts around in his Royal Enfield with an inflated ego and sense of vanity. His only concern is to safeguard his ‘image’ because he’s not good at anything and which he does by lying through his teeth whenever required. Professionally, he’s a history teacher in school who prefers to divert his students’ queries instead of answering them.
To rise in social stature, Ajay marries an educated girl from a business family. Before marriage, Janhvi Kapoor’s Nisha informs him that she suffers from epilepsy. Ignorant Ajay says ‘nice’, in reply. She reiterates that she gets fits but she hasn’t had an episode in the past 10 years.
When Nisha experiences an epileptic episode after marriage, Ajay almost disowns her, never takes her out because her fits could ruin his ‘image’, mistreats her and goes to the extent of calling her ‘defective’. Not only is he callous and disrespectful towards her, he also undervalues his gentle parents, played by a brilliant Manoj Pahwa and an effortless Anjuman Saxena.
Things take a turn when Ajay slaps the son of an influential person in a fit of rage in class after the boy taunts him for not knowing enough about World War II. Ajay gets suspended but decides to preserve his image by creating a false impression. ‘Mahaul aisa banao ki logo ko mahaul yaad rahe, result nahi’ – that’s his philosophy and antidote to all problems.
The show-off that he is, Ajay decides to do a World War II trail trip in Europe — from Paris, Normandy, Amsterdam and Berlin to Auschwitz — and lecture his students online from the actual locations. He does that eventually, and you wonder what’s the extra something he’s teaching that isn’t already there online.
With zero knowledge of history, Ajay’s mission appears unnatural. He makes Nisha tag along with him so that his bank employee father — who wants his son and daughter-in-law to sort out their issues — would readily pay for this expensive trip.
It’s also bizarre how Nisha, who was once a well-travelled and ‘independent’ girl, puts up with the humiliation and insults from Ajay. It’s a wrong representation that an educated woman with low self-esteem thinks a selfish, petty man is okay for her.
As per the script, the two come close on their Europe trip and thus begins the painfully preachy parts of Bawaal. While visiting the historical sites, especially the concentration camps, Ajay and Nisha identify their personal journey, aspirations and struggles with that of the multitude of people tortured and murdered in the camps in Hitler’s Nazi Germany during World War II.
And then, to drive home the point, Ajay and Nisha imagine themselves as refugees, equating their misery in marriage and life in general with the unimaginable horror that played out in Auschwitz. In a matter of moments, Ajay has a complete change of heart after comparing his situation to the inhuman conditions experienced by the prisoners.
One is stumped by director Tiwari’s utter lack of thoughtfulness and sensitivity in presenting one of the greatest instances of human depravity.
At one point, Janhvi’s Nisha says, ‘Hum sab bhi thode bahut Hitler jaise hain na, jo apne paas hai usse khush nahi hain, joh doosre ke paas hai woh chahiye’. And then, ‘Har rishta apne-apne Auschwitz se guzarta hai. Tab jaake hume uss rishte ki ahmiyat samajh mein aati hai.’ And just like that, a lesson in history resolves marital problems for a modern couple.
The problem with Bawaal is that like his protagonist, Tiwari is also more concerned about creating a mahaul without giving two hoots about the consequences. If anything, the film lives up to its name — it really is a mess; read ‘bawaal’.
