Vedaa Review | An Inept Action Flick Focused More on John Abraham’s Biceps Than Caste Politics

The theme of the latest John Abraham starrer  Vedaa, directed by Nikkhil Advani, is the injustice faced by lower caste people. And there is this sequence in the film where the title character  Vedaa, who aspired to learn boxing, gets abused by the upper caste men. The editing of that sequence was done in a way, switching between close-ups and extremely wide establishing shots, it felt like Nikkhil Advani had plans to narrate a predictable story refreshingly. But unfortunately, post the Mouni Roy item song, everything becomes a logicless ride, with John Abraham becoming a jacked-up version of Chuck Norris.

So the story is set against the backdrop of Rajasthan, and our title character, Vedaa, is a law student who belongs to the lower caste. The regular bullying from the privileged younger brother of Pradhan made her think about taking boxing sessions. But the bullies came in her way even in that attempt. In the meantime, a court-martialed soldier, Abhimanyu, arrives at the village, and he becomes an assistant to the main boxing coach. How Abhimanyu’s decision to help Vedaa changes the dynamic of the whole situation is what we see in the Nikkhil Advani film.

At the beginning of the film, we are shown two gruesome events that will give us an idea about Vedaa’s present and Abhimanyu’s past. As I said in the beginning, the depiction of the assault on Vedaa has a very unusual feel in terms of staging. But unfortunately, right after that incident, an item song happens, and from that point onwards, everything starts to disappoint you as a viewer. The way Vedaa and Abhimanyu manage to escape from the goons and police looks more like a logicless ride rather than a compilation of breathtaking action set pieces. There is one poorly executed CGI road chase sequence where John Abraham literally plucks the steering of the vehicle from a bike while it is chasing another vehicle. That whole sequence emphatically ruined any bit of hope associated with this generic story.

John Abraham is in that scarred mode with just one emotion of lack of remorse on his face. Rather than the acting, the movie is more in demand of his physique as Abhimanyu feels more like a bleeding terminator. Sharvari, who plays the role of Vedaa, is actually doing the heavy lifting in terms of making the story a lot more emotional. Abhishek Banerjee, who plays the part of the antagonist, was really good, and this weekend pretty much feels like a testament to his range as an actor as he plays an entirely different character in a different zone and pitch in Stree 2. Ashish Vidyarthi is yet again in the losing team, but this time in Rajasthani slang.

Prior to the release of the film, there was a lot of media attention around it as the CBFC showed less interest in certifying the film. After watching the film, it is kind of obvious that the caste angle is what caused trouble for the movie on a certification level. But if you look at the structuring of the film written by Aseem Arora, it is not that bold in terms of addressing caste on a nuanced level. While people like Pa Ranjith had used the swagger and acceptability of superstars to spread the debate around caste in popular films,  Vedaa is doing the opposite by making caste an excuse to give some life to a generic hero worshipping over-the-top story. The fight choreography and the production design were good, while the CGI was evidently poor.

Despite having so many pertinent ingredients in the storyline,  Vedaa just couldn’t exploit the possibilities effectively and ends up being an underwhelming celebration of testosterone. D Day, which also had similar ambition and texture, was a film I liked very much. But Vedaa felt like a movie that went too much after the bankability of the Satyamev Jayate John Abraham rather than creating a solid action film with the backdrop of caste politics.