'Vanvaas' movie review: Nana Patekar and 'Gadar 2' fame Anil Sharma's drama gives a (s)lump in the throat

Cast: Nana Patekar, Utkarsh Sharma, Simratt Kaur, Rajpal Yadav, Ashwini Kalsekar

Director: Anil Sharma

Language: Hindi

There’s something about Nana Patekar that his finesse is able to blend with any world he’s thrown into. His understanding of eccentricities and emotions is unmatched, and so are his monologues. He’s no longer the young rebellious protagonist of those Mehul Kumar blockbusters, he’s aged but like that contagious Indian alcohol you cannot resist having. His words tremble and his body shakes, but he’s one of those few who has embraced all of this with elan and elegance. Only if Anil Sharma’s Vanvaas could catch up with Patekar’s briskness.

Vanvaas feels like the abandoned child of Swarg and Baghban that went for a vanvaas and came back in 2024, struggling to discover its identity. Patekar here feels the only actor attempting to infuse life into a threadbare material that’s happy with its intent. He gives this role his all, and has some genuinely moving moments driven by pathos. Director Anil Sharma is a man gratified by scale and sweeping shots. We get multiple long shots of Benares and Shimla, a nice but ultimately nauseating reminder how grand his vision is. But unlike those potboilers reeking of saccharine simplicity, Vanvaas, at places, at least brims with humor. The result is hit and miss, but again what matters is intent maybe.

This is a laudable yet limp attempt by Sharma to change his trajectory and expand his oeuvre. His hero is agile and aggrieved, tender and tenacious. If the lanes of Benares or the snow-caped lusciousness of Shimla had hand-pumps, he would be uprooting them all, that’s the magnitude of Patekar’s plight. We are told some muscles of his brain are still functional, that’s why even when he’s forgetting people around him, he recites verses, poems he wrote to his late wife, and life lessons with ease.

We then have Utkarsh Sharma and Simratt Kaur as a pair of small-town lovers whose only conflict in the story is Nana Patekar and his fading memory. They all embark on a journey that’s filled with endless adventures and anger. Patekar’s kids either belong to the era of 1990 or 2003, the year of Swarg and Baghban. When all the cards are out in the open, there is no reason for the film to be 160 minutes long. But again, maybe Anil Sharma wanted to take it easy and not be in a haste to get this man back home. It’s the intent that matters after all.

But Sharma could be our most Indian director in the Hindi film industry. He’s not turned on by western sensibilities and always chooses to milk Desi sentiments to the last drop, even if it looks aged. A aging parent’s emotions for his children always remain the same. It will be interesting to see how the audiences respond to the filmmaker’s dramatic sentiment, especially when the action genre has taken over. A film that’s coming out between two high-octane monikers, Pushpa 2 and Baby John, Vanvaas has a long journey ahead, akin to the protagonist. He does give us a lump in the throat, but at times, a s(lump) too.

Rating: 3.5 (out of 5 stars)