Dasvi
released 2022
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“Dasvi” is an Indian, Hindi, and at times English language, social, political comedy produced by Dinesh Vijan, Sandeep Leyzell, Shraddha Singh and Shobhna Yadav. It was directed by Tushar Jalota and written by Suresh Nair and Ritesh Shah. It stars Abhishek Bachchan, Nimrat Kaur, Yami Gautam, Manu Rishi Chadha, Chittaranjan Tripathy, Danish Husain, Arun Kushwah, Shivankit Singh Parihar, Rohit Tiwari, Dhanveer Singh, Sachin Shroff, Aditi Vats, Lokesh Mittal, Shrikant Verma, Prem Jhangiani, Bablu Baghel and many others.

Dasvi IMDb webpage

“Dasvi” is the story of Chief Minister of the fictional region Harit Pradesh called Ganga Ram Chaudhary, played by Abhishek Bachchan. He is successful, powerful, charismatic, wealthy yada, yada. In short he is a kind of movie star in the world of politics politics. Everything changes when he is involved in a scandal and sent to prison. Because he is also unscrupulous, arrogant and such a narcissist. Yes, all the things he has, all his qualities do not seem to wash away his faults. And as it turns out, he has his faults in spades. But this is a story of a person at the summit of their career as well as their fall from such a summit and the lessons that come along with it. As his time in jail passes he slowly starts to lose the privileges he bought in jail as well as his political post outside of jail. When he is first sent to prison he corrupts the guards to let him have a room that is like a five star hotel suite. He really makes a mockery of the justice system at first but things change when the new warden takes over. Her name is Jyoti Deswal, played by Yami Gautam, and she takes over with a no tolerance policy toward Ganga’s corruption. She is also very fair and kind and not at all the sadistic, brutal jail warden you see in so many movies. Add to Ganga’s troubles the fact that the woman he chose to run things while he was in jail who was his wife Bimla Devi ‘Bimmo’ Chaudhary, played by Nimrat Kaur, likes the power too much and decides to stay where she is. And as it turns out, she does a pretty good job running things too. So not only is she a good wife but she is an asset to the region they govern.

Their relationship is really a special thing because unlike in the West they respect and love each other through the whole struggle for power. There is no venom and hatred on the part of either of them which is a refreshing change from Western films. In almost any western film the two would have behaved so venomously toward each other the way married couples are encouraged to behave when they reach a disagreement here in the West. That was nice. Through it all the institution of marriage is respected. What a new concept. I think we in the West could learn from this film regarding that point.

This is after all a comedy that tackles problems in society like the caste system with a light hearted edge. The characters, even Ganga, will change and are not extreme or sadistic and are capable of some kind of change. Although they do not change as much as we would have liked.

I loved the scene where Ganga was in front of the jail doors and the padlock is rusted and won’t open so the supervising guard rubs the rusted lock on the oily head of the guard trying to open the lock and gets it to open. That was hilarious and some foreshadowing of how things were run in the prison before Jyoti shows up.

The protagonist is a prime example of success and how that success can blind someone to their faults and moral obligations to others and their community. If you think about it both Ganga and Bimmo are bettering themselves. Ganga works on his academic betterment while Bimmo works on her political betterment. That is stealing her husband’s job. That is why I think that both characters grow as people and become better, more rounded people. I don’t approve of Bimmo’s plans but she does become a better person.

This is a fun, well written comedy with broad audience appeal. If only Hollywood would make films, comedies even, of this caliber. I loved the way the characters fumbled, did what they did but never became cold or ruthless which is something lacking in most Hollywood films.

I loved this film. What a gem.

John Ink2Quill

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