In a complete mess like Nitesh Tiwari’s “Baawal,” there is a lot to take in and consider, but let’s start with what stands out right away: audacity. In order to fit the tale of a failed marriage, this mainstream Bollywood romance makes conscious allusions to the unfathomable horrors of World War II and genocide. Hitler was transformed into an allegory of human greed, and Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp in Nazi Germany, was recreated to represent a Jewish couple being suffocated by insecticides. A film like Bawal, with all of its insensitivity, cannot be digested, yet it is still in existence today.
Setting
The story opens in modern-day Lucknow, setting the stage for our hero, Ajay “Ajju” Dixit (Varun Dhawan), to bravely enter on his bike and draw the attention of the locals in his neighborhood. Why? Because it is claimed that our Ajju is more aware of its “image” than any other culture.
He is employed as an elementary history teacher in the city, but it is still “mysterious” how he obtained the position. In actuality, he is a pathological liar and a worthless man-child. He is wed to the intelligent epileptic seizure sufferer Nisha (Janhvi Kapoor). Nisha tells Ajju about this, but he is too ashamed to kick her out of the house for fear that the information will spread and harm his “image.”
Ajju and Nisha’s Trip to Europe
When Ajju slaps a student in class and it is discovered that his father is an MLA, his carefully cultivated image is put in jeopardy. The immediate suspension of Ajju. At that point, he devises an absolutely startling plan to take his students to Europe and teach them about the devastation caused by World War II. Additionally, Ajju’s parents (Manoj Pahwa and Anjuman Saxena) happily contribute to the cost of this expensive trip because they want the couple to become closer. Still no inquiries being made? Good.
Organically changes completely from this point forward. Nitesh Tiwari, who co-wrote Baawal with Piyush Gupta, Nikhil Mehrotra, and Shreyas Jain, is more concerned with the aging of his sexist main character than the unspeakable horrors of war. He finds an orchestral performance at The Musée de l’Armée in Paris intolerable and wishes he could leave. In front of Nisha, he makes fun of his accent several times before pleading with her to move in with him starting the following day. His students receive his videos from the website, and they benefit greatly from his lectures.
Doomsday Episode
Ajju asks Nisha what she would do if she only had one day to live after they both visit the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. When Nisha inquires as to the reason for his philosophical behavior, he responds, “After leaving the Anne Frank house, there is some philosophy to be made.”
Nisha promises to go out in a gown and drink beer at a nearby cafe. An indication of their growing romance, followed by a ridiculously staged song. It gets worse as we desperately try to make sense of history’s deafening state of affairs.
It doesn’t help that Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor have no chemistry. Varun’s involvement in this is particularly upsetting because his adulting perspective barely matters. Jhanvi is strangely oblivious to what is going on around her and is stymied by the worst dialogue. That line equating Hitler with human greed has a special place in hell. I still have ear bleeding.
The two tour the Auschwitz concentration camp and imagine themselves suffocating inside the gas chambers as the final, most insensitive act of the ruse. This portrayal of the Holocaust as a narrative scapegoat for the characters to confront their fears and save their toxic marriages is deeply horrifying and shameful. As soon as the two discover one another, the historical subtext vanishes. The black and white fades away to reveal color in the pictures. The impact, to put it mildly, is concerning.
One of the greatest human tragedies is turned into an allegory in this movie because it is so consumed by its own twisted vision of romance and self-worth. Not that people should forget the unfathomable horrors of war. The profound and sympathetic nature of cinema allows us to accommodate the many untold tales of places and generations that are still plagued by its repercussions. but from a far-off location.
It serves no purpose to attempt to put that horror into context or to speculate about what one might do in that circumstance. It is an extremely problematic act of narcissism that, worse still, invalidates the accounts of numerous victims whose experiences can never be held up to close examination. Bawal is arguably the most insensitive and deafening movie Hindi cinema has ever made. Anyone who reads this history lesson doesn’t deserve to.