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Vanvaas Review: Nana Patekar tries his best to save this sinking ship, but fails due to the overdramatised script and plots.
Vanvaas is now in theatres. Is the film worth watching? Read our review here.
Vanvaas U/A
1.5/5
Starring: Nana Patekar, Utkarsh Sharma, Simratt Kaur, Ashwini Kalsekar, Khushbu Sundar, Rajpal YadavDirector: Anil Sharma
After the massive success of Gadar 2, director Anil Sharma is back with a family drama titled Vanvaas. The film stars Nana Patekar, Utkarsh Sharma and Simratt Kaur in the lead roles. As much as we enjoyed watching the action and dialogues in Sunny Deol-starrer Gadar 2, Vanvaas is a film that deals with a genre that’s outdated and explored countless number of times in the Hindi cinema – family feud between parents and children for monetary reasons. The plot offers nothing new, but the same old recited stories of parents being abandoned by children for either their health issues or for property. However, through the overdramatic scenes and dialogues in the film, the only breakaway is the poetic diversions that make the film bearable for 160-odd minutes.
What’s more disappointing is the fact that Sharma has an actor like Nana Patekar and the veteran is not left with any room for experimentation or to bring about the powerful screen presence that he always offers. Patekar, with all his capabilities, has tried his best to hold a sinking ship. However, he fails to do so because the fault is in the plot and script.
The story follows Patekar, who plays the role of Deepak Tyagi, a retired NDRF officer suffering from Dementia. His children and his daughter-in-law abandon him in Varanasi. The film then shows how he makes his journey back home.
While running around in panic in Varanasi, Patekar meets Utkarsh Sharma, who plays the role of Veeru Bhaiyya — a petty thief and con. He is in love with Meena Kumari, a dancer played by Simratt Kaur. To impress her aunt, Ashwini Kalsekar, Utkarsh helps Patekar, who he refers to as Baba, to reach his home in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh. Utkarsh has that charm to himself but needs a filmmaker who can get the best out of him. Vanvaas also has Khushbu Sundar, who plays an important role as Vimla Tyagi, wife of Deepak Tyagi played by Patekar. The chemistry between the two senior actors are good in the limited scenes we get to see throughout the film.
The three children of Deepak and Vimla — Somu played by Hemant Kher, Bablu played by Kettan Singh and Chutka played by Paritosh Tripathi — fail to impress in their respective characters owning to the dull dialogues and overdramatic scenes and at times the overacting. The only character that makes an impression and would make you laugh a little here and there is that of Rajpal Yadav, who is a confidant of Veeru Bhaiyya. Overall, it is quite disappointing to go for a Nana Patekar film and return without having a single element that makes you want to remember his films. Anil Sharma, who played the safe cards with Vanvaas, has landed up presenting a quite below-par film that cannot be saved even by Nana Patekar.