Sruthi Ganapathy Raman
When Atlee announced his fifth film — which would see his return to the big screen after four years — with Shah Rukh Khan, it did raise a few eyebrows.
A body is washed up on a riverside in an unnamed town on the Indian border. A huge flock of local indigenous people gather to carefully bandage and tend to his every bullet wound, a gesture marked not out of greed, but kindness.
It Tries to chase this high that it beautifully managed to create in its first five minutes. 30 years into the future, a bald but sprightly Khan and his savvy gang of six women, take a metro train in Mumbai hostage.
Not just in moments of pure revelry, but also when he is required to pare it back. In a cute scene with Narmada’s daughter, he re-lives the pain of not having grown up under the care of his parents.
Nothing is what it seems in an Atlee film. The filmmaker’s eye packing in detail in the most unexpected places is apparent in Jawan, too. A prison is not just a prison in his film, but a reminder and duty for some.