Afwaah Review: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bhumi Pednekar’s film resonates with its title, good screenplay is an Afwaah!

Director: Sudhir Mishra

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bhumi Pednekar, Sumeet Vyas, Sharib Hashmi and others

Where: In theatre near you

Rating: 1.5 stars

In the times, where fast paced long format narratives are the flavour of the season, a boring film is absolutely a big no-no. Social media is a tool that is widely used to spread misinformation, communal outrage and unwanted hatred towards a certain caste, strata of people, etc. Director Sudhir Mishra sheds light on the topical subject but fails to address it properly.

Nivedita Singh aka Nivi (Bhumi Pednekar) tries to escape from the bunch of yes-men of her fiancé Vicky (Sumeet Vyas), an aspiring politician. Nivi and Vicky have different ideologies and in order to keep the sanctity of her own life, the former elopes. Nivi then meets Rahab (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a motivational speaker, who helps her run away. Vicky’s right hand Chandan (Sharib Hashmi) also joins the bandwagon in saving Nivi.

Soon after, in the urge of taking revenge, Vicky starts a fake campaign of Love Jihad on social media that leads to mass destruction.

Director Sudhir Mishra definitely picks up a subject for his film which is a talking point at the moment but doesn’t really impress in its execution. The first 30 minutes of the film keeps you clueless about the happenings. The characters are blurred and seem to have no connection with the core idea initially.

Disappointingly, Sudhir picks up the stale conversation of Hindu-Muslim marriage despite having a pool of misconceptions and misinformations available online. Perhaps, this is the most palatable topic for the people. It’s easier to stir communal tension.

Sudhir’s film lacks pace, edge and intensity. So, when the film picks up in the second half, you are already detached from it. Although Sudhir is a great filmmaker, with age he seems to have lost the ability to tell socially relevant topics.

Nawazuddin seems to act in haste throughout. His English dialogue delivery is deliberately vague. Bhumi offers yet another similar character in the film. She seems to be so comfortable in the skin of rural-based roles. Sumeet Vyas is okay, Sharib Hashmi yet another time proves that he is a need of such ensembles.

With absolutely no marketing and promotions, Afwaah remains to be a rumour for the cine goers. A straight to OTT release would have impacted it more than a current theatrical run. The film surely touches upon a thought provoking idea but doesn’t survive at all till end.