Vedaa Review: John Abraham, Sharvari starrer film is a rehash of all old stories

VEDAA

Director: Nikkhil Advani

Cast: John Abraham, Sharvari, Tamannaah Bhatia, Abhishek Banerjee and Ashish Vidyarthi

Released at theatres.

Rating:

By Jyothi Venkatesh

The film revolves around Vedaa Bhairva (Sharvari) who signs up for a rigorous boxing training camp in her college even while she is aware that this step will invite opposition from the village pradhan’s Jitin Pratap Singh’s family, (Abhishek Banerjee) but wants to take that chance, especially since for her, boxing is the way out of her oppressive life in Barmer.

The village head, while maintaining a progressive facade, favours the caste discrimination and his extremely violent brother, Suyog (Kshitij Chauhan), is often seen ruthlessly bashing up those who defy the societal norms. Inspired by real-life stories ‘Vedaa’ speaks out loud against caste- based injustices and crimes.

When a court-martialed Army Major, Abhimanyu (John Abraham) comes to Barmer, winds of change begin to sweep in. He takes Vedaa under his wing and starts training her to become a boxer. The two eventually form a formidable team, when the sheer injustice against her family crosses all limits.

Also read: Khel Khel Mein Review: Froth and substance blend seamlessly within the realm of entertainment

As far as performances are concerned, John Abraham as Abhimanyu is a man of very few words, though his terrific punches and kicks come flying fast and furious to do all the talking. The film scores high on stunts and he is every bit the action-star we’ve been looking forward to on screen. Though Sharvari in the title role is raw and unhinged, she succeeds in holding her own very well in emotionally charged scenes. She is quite resilient and unwilling to give up, which is quite impressive. To his credit, I should say that Abhishek Banerjee channels his menacing side in this role to ace the role of the protagonist.

As the uncle of the village Pradhan, Ashish Vidyarthi is good as usual but veers towards an over the top performance. Kshitij Chauhan is quite good in his role of the antagonist. Though direction by Nikhil Advani is quite in sync with the treatment of the film, sadly quite a few portions are predictable, and follow the formulaic route, reminding you of earlier films like Bhaiyaji and Joram but the hard-core action sequences keep the adrenaline rush going.

All said and done, the film circles back to Vedaa to allow her a brief cathartic speech, though to sum up, it is just a rehash of all similar old stories. It is sad that social messages like this in the first place get overshadowed by the action scenes in the film.