“Bawaal” is a sensationally absurd Bollywood production that tells a simple moral story about what it means to be a real man. Directed by Nitesh Tiwari (“Dangal”), this globe-trotting romance, like many Bollywood films, is deliberately exaggerated. But this one isn’t very nice.
Ajay (Varun Dhawan), a primary school history teacher, is only interested in one thing: looking good. Immaculately groomed and chiseled, he doesn’t seem to care that his students aren’t learning, nor that his wife, Nisha (Janhvi Kapoor), is desperately unhappy.
Ajay keeps Nisha out of sight and at home with his parents – she has epilepsy and he is afraid of damaging his image if she has a seizure in public. When Ajay is suspended from work for hitting a student, he devises a plan to prove his pedagogical worth. He goes to Europe where he gives video lectures from various historical locations to his students back home in small town India.
Nisha goes along, despite Ajay’s protests, proving herself too. In Europe, she’s far more capable – and, of course, more beautiful – than Ajay would have liked to realize, as he suffers, in sleepy comedic segments, from the petty rigors of travel: misplaced luggage, pickpockets, and a nasty exchange rate.
Ajay becomes more compassionate with every part of the journey. Monochrome fantasy scenes plunge him and Nisha into battle on the Normandy coast; in another they are victims in an Auschwitz gas chamber. It’s a blatant metaphor for the dire state of their relationship, and one of the movie’s many undeserved pivots to major drama.
Dhawan (too convincing a narcissist to change your mind) and Kapoor (devoid of charisma) have no chemistry, and you never really root for Ajay, but you hope Nisha runs for it. The film’s macho, save-the-marriage traditionalism will seem icky to some viewers – especially since, without genuine laughs or commitment, there’s little else to experience.
Bawaal
Not judged. Running time: 2 hours 17 minutes. Watch on Prime Video.
