Vanvaas (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – Revolves around the hard-hitting theme of children abandoning their parents in their old age

My Take – Fresh off the blockbuster commercial success of Gadar 2 (2023) and a third installment in the pipeline, for his latest, director Anil Sharma, who has been helming features since the early 1980s, heads towards familiar territory in the form of a parental abuse tearjerker. Something on the lines of the still very watchable Baghban (2003).

His script, which he co-wrote with Amjad Ali and Sunil Sirvaiya, aims to address how some children go to extremes to rid themselves from taking on the responsibility of their old parents and how, at times, their love is merely about securing financial gains after their demise. But while his subject deeply resonates, the staple loud Anil Sharma treatment and excessive melodrama end up diluting what could have been a sharp and impactful narrative.

Add to that the dated design, where the parent is always a patriarch with worthy property and the savior is an orphan ruffian with a heart of gold, feels reminiscent of most 80s setups and lacks the freshness to elevate its overstretched running time of 159 minutes.

Yes, it is mostly an engaging watch and indeed, Anil Sharma’s intentions are genuine, but a more modern approach could have helped the film to better resonate.

The story follows Deepak Tyagi (Nana Patekar), a retired widower who lives a quiet life with his three sons and their families. Struggling with early-onset dementia, he often reminisces about his late wife, Vimala (Khushboo), whom he deeply loved. However, his constant corrections and idealistic nature ends up frustrating his family.

Tired of his behavior and to ensure they can possess control of their family home for monetary benefit, they devise a plan to celebrate his birthday in Varanasi and abandon him at an old age home. But since such homes require identity proof to complete the transfer, they end up leaving him at one of the ghats during a procession, minus any documents and his medicine, so he cannot find his way back.

With scattered memory of his hometown and the actual age of his sons, a confused Deepak, who also doesn’t even remember his name at this point, immediately begins a desperate search for them. Luckily for him, he encounters Veeru (Utkarsh Sharma), a small-time crook, who first cons the dementia-struck Deepak, but soon, after a series of events develops a rapport with the old man.

Though, the orphaned Veeru also aims to rid of the persistent man by whatever means possible, his life gets further complicated when Rampatiya Mausi (Ashwini Kalsekar), the guardian of his girlfriend Meena (Simrat Kaur), sets up a condition that Veeru must ensure that Deepak reunites with his family, if he wants to consider settling down.

Thus begins the challenging path of tracing who the old man is, in the vein of Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), but veers off in a different less unique direction, that involves strategically questioning him according to medical advice about his past.

After hurrying through the family dynamics in Deepak’s home, the makers spend a lot of time in creating the world around Veeru which looks utterly staged. Instead, the film could have focused more on the sons’ animosity toward their father, which here is portrayed without much context, making their motivations appear one-dimensional.

Though the helplessness of Deepak stirs empathy and brings a lump to your throat, it falls short of delivering the necessary emotional catharsis. Mainly as it leans heavily on a preachy tone to deliver its message. The dialogues, peppered with references to Karl Marx and BR Ambedkar, often veer into excessive moralizing, which can become tiresome after a while.

Without a doubt, in parts, director Anil Sharma teases a more thoughtful film, and of imagining a world with greys and not just blacks and whites. Tyagi’s offspring, for example, are allowed at least some moments of genuine grievances. In Varanasi, the orphan Veeru and the orphaned Babuji share snatches of camaraderie that feel real. But with little surprises in storytelling, it is left to the ever excellent Nana Patekar to do the heavy lifting and deliver commanding performance.

Bringing authenticity and emotional depth to the trauma of being abandoned by his own sons, Patekar dominates the screen, present in almost every scene, and fully embodies the character. He is particularly fantastic in his romantic scenes with his onscreen wife, played by Khushboo, who makes a rare special appearance in Hindi cinema and provides the emotional hook to the story.

Utkarsh Sharma too brings a sincere turn and shows steady improvement with each film. The same goes for his ‘Gadar 2‘ heroine, Simrat Kaur, who is mostly competent, despite hints of going overboard in certain scenes. Rajpal Yadav and Ashwini Kalsekar provide solid support, doing justice to their parts. On the whole, ‘Vanvaas’ is a below-par emotional drama which despite noble intentions succumbs on the execution level.