Dasvi (2022) :
Movie Review -
"Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world." Who doesn't know this legendary quote by Nelson Mandela? And who doesn't agree? Almost everyone does, I suppose. Well, Dasvi is actually based on a theme which is entirely dedicated to Mandela's thoughts, but fails to provoke those thoughts in good manners. Tushar Jalota's political * family * competitive * educational drama stays out of context most of the time, and when it comes to the point, it's just pointless.
Dasvi is about an uneducated politician, Ganga Ram Chaudhary (Abhishek Bachchan), who is jailed under a tough cop, Jyoti Desval (Yami Gautam Dhar). Under the circumstances, he passes his reign to his wife, Bimla Devi (Nimrat Kaur), who soon starts taking over his territory. First as a trick, but then, after being humiliated for his low education (8th standard), he decides to spend his time studying for high school while his scheming wife has plans of her own. The basic idea was to mix the educational theme with dramatic elements, but as it goes ahead, it forgets the main context. When it comes back to its senses, it's too late to recover from a flop show. Not just that, but even the rest of the additional factors like comedy, political conspiracies, muted feminism, equality and self-realisation haven't got anything that can be called perfect. The humour is somewhat pleasant, but only on a few occasions. The same subject could have been handled smartly, with altered conflicts and exaggerated drama. That, however, is too lengthy to make sense and grab your attention. Dasvi isn't about just one exam, but multiple at the same time, and maybe that's why it fails to score passing marks. Even the technical chapters like music, cinematography, editing, and set designing add up to nothing materialistic.
Speaking of performances, it seems that Dasvi has scored respectable grades here. Abhishek Bachchan as CM Chaudhary is everything. He's smart, dumb, tricky, diplomatic and cunning. I only wish that all those things were balanced in the right order. Nevertheless, Abhishek Bachchan still delivers an honest act which can't be hated. The female lead, Nimrat Kaur, goes through a transformation that isn't easy to digest. From a cowardly home cat to a screwy CM, Nimrat shows different and truer colours of her acting talent. Yami Gautam Dhar plays a tough cop, and She is indeed tough. Quite possibly, this is her most hard-boiled role to date, and she is surprisingly lovable in it.
What makes this exam difficult for Dasvi is the director's ordinary vision of a high-scope storyline. Naturally, he can't be blamed for the writers' mistakes, but his storytelling wasn't all that great in the first place. You don't see any reason why those spoofy scenes are scheduled after some really good ones. Was that historical spoof made for KG students or what? And what was the outcome? Even the board members of SSC/CBSE would know no answer to that. Whatever exiguous scenes there are, I mean those studying techniques of Chaudhary sahab and his dialoguebaazi on Indian politics, are indeed enjoyable. Apart from that, there is nothing like a study material for cine viewers. Overall, it's a skippable flick, and it's good that it came on OTT. As a honest movie lover, it is your fundamental right to skip this film.
RATING - 4/10*
