{"id":7515,"date":"2016-03-07T04:22:54","date_gmt":"2016-03-06T22:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7515"},"modified":"2016-03-07T04:22:54","modified_gmt":"2016-03-06T22:52:54","slug":"dasvi-review-abhishek-bachchan-netflix-yami-gautam-nimrat-kaur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=7515","title":{"rendered":"Dasvi Review: Some Heart but almost no Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"\nE<\/span>ducation isn\u2019t a mandate to be a politician in India and Netflix\u2019s Dasvi is a film about why this can be dangerous. Abhishek Bachchan plays Chief Minister Gangaram Chaudhary, a Jat politician who is uneducated and cannot even sign his own name. He\u2019s proud of his corrupt regime and mocks the idea of education being a powerful tool for change. There is an army of yes-men propagating his preposterous, not to mention criminal ways of running his state. He represents every ignorant, conservative Indian leader whose name often flashes across news headlines in our country for the wrong reasons. Things take a u-turn for Chaudhary when he\u2019s sent to prison on multiple criminal charges and his wife Bimla Devi ( Nimrat Kaur) takes over as the temporary CM of the state. In the company of virtuous, learned individuals who are also inmates of the same jail, Chaudhary who is now being outwitted by his own wife, starts to open his mind to the importance of acquiring knowledge. It\u2019s a solid premise, but also one that the film, its performances, script and direction fail to live up to.\n\n

Dasvi\u2019s premise has the scope for everything that makes for good potboiler cinema.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nDasvi\u2019s premise has the scope for everything that makes for good potboiler cinema. Typically, it\u2019s a film where the protagonist undergoes an experience that changes his life, and it is meant to inspire. However, the film falls short of translating the experience of its leading character for the audience. This is mostly due to an underdeveloped plot and characters whose motivations seem superficial and undefined. Screenplay writers Suresh Nair, Ritesh Shah and Sandeep Leyzell successfully build a world where they indirectly critique a system that runs on crime and greed. \n\nIt could say a lot about India\u2019s politics and yet the story gets stuck between Chaudhary\u2019s struggles with understanding the various subjects he is trying to learn and Bimla devi\u2019s imbecile attempts to keep him from appearing for the exam. The film never really goes beyond this tug-of-war and the characters turn into caricatures, difficult to empathise with or root for. Yes, this is meant to be a political comedy of sorts, and supposed to be light-hearted in its treatment, but there\u2019s a difference between being funny and being frivolous. Dasvi often leans towards the latter. All the leading characters seem underwritten and are obious in the worst ways.\n\n

However, the film falls short of translating the experience of its leading character for the audience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nFor instance, we never really know why Bimla Devi suddenly goes from being a docile wife to a power hungry politician out to get her own husband. Even if we believe that she does so because she finally has a chance to stop being the CM\u2019s wife and rule the nation, it seems unrealistic for her to have gained that much confidence and popularity within the given time frame. What is her backstory? No one cares to tell. Similarly, Chaudhary’s motivation to study stems from small humiliations, something you\u2019d think must happen every other day. But look around, and does it really? There are some interesting sequences in the film where Chaudhary he goes back into time and talks to our great leaders, but after Munnabhai and Gandhiji\u2019s camaraderie in Lage Raho Munnabhai, this one feels forced.\n\nIn an attempt to keep the film frothy and fun, the story writer Ram Bajpai seems to have compromised on basic plot turns and beats needed to keep a storyline interesting. Yami Gautam who plays a straightforward cop is believable, but even she goes from loathing Chaudhary to cheering for him in no time. Debutant director Tushar Jalota manages to create some moments but in terms of style or approach he doesn\u2019t suggest a uniqueness. If you\u2019ve picked a subject as strong as \u2018Education in India\u2019 to make a point, you cannot just wrap it up into one conclusive monologue.\n\n

Debutant director Tushar Jalota manages to create some moments but in terms of style or approach he doesn\u2019t suggest a uniqueness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nAbhishek Bachchan says this is his most challenging film, and he brings his best to the role of a grown Haryanvi man going back to the drawing board of basic education. His accent, body language, comic timing, all work perfectly well, but you do wish he had more meat to chew off of, and an equally adept supporting cast to boot. He\u2019s sincere in his performance, but a better fleshed out part would have perhaps made more impact. Eventually what keeps Dasvi going is composers’ Sachin-Jigar\u2019s peppy numbers that act like boosters to pull you out of the boredom that begins to set in. The songs and the score of the film are what really add some life, and it perhaps says something about the longevity when you\u2019re telling people to watch Dasvi for its distractions and not its story or, incredibly, its messaging.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dasvi has a terrific premise, some moments of joy, but is so poorly executed and written that it wastes a lot of its own potential; chief among them a more than decent turn by Abhishek Bachchan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[1898,141,1991,11646,11647,995,1404,11648,2027,1341,3006,11649,9920],"class_list":["post-7515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-abhishek-bachchan","tag-bollywood","tag-bollywood-movies","tag-dasvi","tag-dasvi-review","tag-hindi","tag-hindi-cinema","tag-hindi-movie","tag-movie-review","tag-netflix","tag-nimrat-kaur","tag-tushar-jalota","tag-yami-gautam"],"yoast_head":"\nDasvi Review: Some Heart but almost no Soul<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dasvi has a terrific premise, some moments of joy, but is so poorly executed and written that it wastes a lot of its own potential; chief among them a more than decent turn by Abhishek Bachchan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7515\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dasvi Review: Some Heart but almost no Soul\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dasvi has a terrific premise, some moments of joy, but is so poorly executed and written that it wastes a lot of its own potential; chief among them a more than decent turn by Abhishek Bachchan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7515\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-06T22:52:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Divya Unny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Dasvi Review: Some Heart but almost no Soul\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Dasvi has a terrific premise, some moments of joy, but is so poorly executed and written that it wastes a lot of its own potential; chief among them a more than decent turn by Abhishek Bachchan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Divya Unny\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7515#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7515\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Divya Unny\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0d08ebdd20042c576cfb56054335b28b\"},\"headline\":\"Dasvi Review: Some Heart but almost no Soul\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-06T22:52:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7515\"},\"wordCount\":846,\"keywords\":[\"Abhishek Bachchan\",\"bollywood\",\"Bollywood Movies\",\"Dasvi\",\"Dasvi Review\",\"hindi\",\"Hindi Cinema\",\"Hindi Movie\",\"Movie review\",\"Netflix\",\"Nimrat Kaur\",\"Tushar Jalota\",\"Yami Gautam\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Pop Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7515\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7515\",\"name\":\"Dasvi Review: Some Heart but almost no Soul\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-06T22:52:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0d08ebdd20042c576cfb56054335b28b\"},\"description\":\"Dasvi has a terrific premise, some moments of joy, but is so poorly executed and written that it wastes a lot of its own potential; chief among them a more than decent turn by Abhishek Bachchan\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7515#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7515\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=7515#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dasvi Review: Some Heart but almost no Soul\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arr\u00e9\",\"description\":\"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0d08ebdd20042c576cfb56054335b28b\",\"name\":\"Divya Unny\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a40c2cbde2773955712e9b206ef431ab39573377513ed4752bd45d2964be947f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a40c2cbde2773955712e9b206ef431ab39573377513ed4752bd45d2964be947f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a40c2cbde2773955712e9b206ef431ab39573377513ed4752bd45d2964be947f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Divya Unny\"},\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?author=180\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dasvi Review: Some Heart but almost no Soul","description":"Dasvi has a terrific premise, some moments of joy, but is so poorly executed and written that it wastes a lot of its own potential; chief among them a more than decent turn by Abhishek Bachchan","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7515","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dasvi Review: Some Heart but almost no Soul","og_description":"Dasvi has a terrific premise, some moments of joy, but is so poorly executed and written that it wastes a lot of its own potential; chief among them a more than decent turn by Abhishek Bachchan","og_url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7515","og_site_name":"Arr\u00e9","article_published_time":"2016-03-06T22:52:54+00:00","author":"Divya Unny","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Dasvi Review: Some Heart but almost no Soul","twitter_description":"Dasvi has a terrific premise, some moments of joy, but is so poorly executed and written that it wastes a lot of its own potential; chief among them a more than decent turn by Abhishek Bachchan","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Divya Unny","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7515#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7515"},"author":{"name":"Divya Unny","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/0d08ebdd20042c576cfb56054335b28b"},"headline":"Dasvi Review: Some Heart but almost no Soul","datePublished":"2016-03-06T22:52:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7515"},"wordCount":846,"keywords":["Abhishek Bachchan","bollywood","Bollywood Movies","Dasvi","Dasvi Review","hindi","Hindi Cinema","Hindi Movie","Movie review","Netflix","Nimrat Kaur","Tushar Jalota","Yami Gautam"],"articleSection":["Pop Culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7515","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7515","name":"Dasvi Review: Some Heart but almost no Soul","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-03-06T22:52:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/0d08ebdd20042c576cfb56054335b28b"},"description":"Dasvi has a terrific premise, some moments of joy, but is so poorly executed and written that it wastes a lot of its own potential; chief among them a more than decent turn by Abhishek Bachchan","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7515#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7515"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7515#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dasvi Review: Some Heart but almost no Soul"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/","name":"Arr\u00e9","description":"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/0d08ebdd20042c576cfb56054335b28b","name":"Divya Unny","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a40c2cbde2773955712e9b206ef431ab39573377513ed4752bd45d2964be947f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a40c2cbde2773955712e9b206ef431ab39573377513ed4752bd45d2964be947f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a40c2cbde2773955712e9b206ef431ab39573377513ed4752bd45d2964be947f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Divya Unny"},"url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?author=180"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}