Dasvi review: Abhishek Bachchan, Nimrat Kaur, Yami Gautam pass with flying colours in this bungled film

2.5/5

An ignorant politician (Abhishek A Bachchan) is imprisoned by a tough cop (Yami Gautam Dhar) and resolves to spend his time studying for high school, but his conniving wife (Nimrat Kaur) has other plans.

That towering personality walking into the jail after being convicted of a scam will make you wonder whether Abhishek A Bachchan will be mouthing the iconic dialogue of his father and legend, Amitabh Bachchan, "Hum jahan khade ho jaate hain, line wahi se shuru hoti hai." But instead, we get a middle-aged Chief Minister dancing to Macha Macha Re after being jailed and promised five-star treatment in prison.

Without any second thought, Ganga Ram Chaudhary (Bachchan) gives away that power to his naive wife, Bimla Devi, aka Bimmo (Nimrat Kaur). As expected, we see that the convicted "ex" CM of the fictional state of Harit Pradesh takes the remote control in his hand and instructs his wife to do as he says. In the process, he encounters Jyoti Deswal (Yami Gautam), who is in charge of the Central Jail where he is imprisoned. This basic premise, loaded with the right to education, sets the stage for the rest of the plot.

Do they all pass with flying colours? Well, the actors do, but not the plot, which has high intent in serving the purpose.

Without wasting any time, the story establishes that Chaudhary wants to complete his schooling, but makes it an excuse to not do any household chores. Well, then out of nowhere, we just see multiple déjà vu moments from many iconic films.

First things first, the makers just decided to pay an unwanted homage to Rang De Basanti by creating scenes that Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra did in the sequences of the documentary. In Dasvi, it just tried to be funny by showing that a corrupted politician is "awakened" after reading a history textbook. Instead, it urged me to revisit the 2006 film ASAP!

Well, the references just don't stop there... In its way, with caricaturish dialogues, Bachchan takes the Taare Zameen Par route, wherein his inmates help him, and it will remind you of Aamir Khan's dialogue, "Padhne likhne ke liye aksharon ki awaaz, unki banavat, shabdon ka matlab samajhna zaroori." They do take this dialogue in a literal sense, and we see "eureka" moments witnessed by Chaudhary.

At some point in time, one might feel that Dasvi is a part of the Irrfan Khan starrer Hindi Medium franchise, which also touched upon the importance of education beautifully. The feelings do get stronger if you watch the song Thaan Liya in the film, a similar track to Ek Jindari.

These references make Dasvi a little tedious to watch as the film doesn't have anything new to offer despite having the plot of a Chief Minister completing his education in jail. To be honest, Bachchan even fails to show that he is even a former CM, so we just live in a make-believe world when it comes to the politicians of the country.

When it comes to performances, Abhishek A Bachchan did hit it out of the park with his performance. The actor brings that innocence of being an uneducated man, which blends well with the well-informed politician. He owns the sequences with his perfect attitude and stupendous dialogue delivery.

On the other hand, for me, it was Nimrat Kaur who was the show-stealer in the film. From being the cherubic and naive wife of a CM to taking power in her hands along with an extreme image makeover, she has been shown fantastically. It's a treat to see her imbibe the negative shades, showing how power gets into one's head and you just think about yourself.

Meanwhile, Yami Gautam Dhar plays it well as a tough cop and leaves an impressive mark with her mannerisms and dialogue delivery.

Writers Ritesh Shah, Suresh Nair, and Sandeep Laeyzell have their hearts in the right place. But too many cooks do spoil the broth. That's what Dasvi suffered immensely. The Right to Education plot seems original, but the sequences are taken from the films mentioned above and also from Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.

The lack of originality even makes the performances by the lead actors suffer. However, their efforts, and also those of Tushar Jalota, are quite visible, but only work as a catalyst due to the half-baked screenplay.

But the film, despite showing most of the jail sequences, hardly makes it look like a prison. That's where one might just lose interest too.

Abhishek Bachchan, Nimrat Kaur, and Yami Gautam Dhar pass with flying colours in Dasvi, but the screenplay misses the mark tragically.