Vedaa review: John Abraham and Sharvari’s thriller on caste system gets you thinking, delivers a hard-hitting message (2024)

Vedaa’s win lies in the attention to details. As hard it is to digest, a girl belonging to a lower caste, requests an upper caste woman to fill her water bottle from the college’s water cooler. It is so deeply ingrained in her, that in another scene, she would rather cry and let a gang of upper caste hooligans assault her, than react. (Also read: Stree 2 review: Rajkummar Rao leads a sequel that's better than the original, Abhishek Banerjee is the highlight)

The story

John Abraham is back with action (that he wants all non-idiots to know isn't anything like this recent action films), complete with his t-shirt-ripping muscles. Only here, there’s brains behind the brawn. Vedaa begins with the story of a court marshalled Gorkha officer, Major Abhimanyu Kanwar (played by John), who enters the life of a young girl, Vedaa (played by Sharvari). She has seen honour killings up close and personally- her own brother was brutally killed by the ‘Pradhan’ of the village, Jitendra Pratap Singh (played by Abhishek Banerjee). He also kills a girl from his family for running away with the 'lower caste' boy.

You get the drift. Sharvari plans to do a lot with her life. She yearns to learn boxing even as people around dissuade her. Abhimanyu recognises her zeal, and begins to train her, much to the dismay of the fellow male boxers.

After killing her sister, the upper caste antagonists are now chasing Sharvari in order to kill her. Does she escape?

Nikhil Advani has clearly come a long way from the sappy romance he directed in Kal Ho Naa Ho, to now Vedaa. The sensitivity of the subject at hand is revealed via just the disclaimer shown in the beginning of the film. I stopped counting after a few seconds, given how long it was. Calling it fiction in the beginning, convincing us they don’t mean to hurt anyone isn’t exactly reassuring for the audience who is going to be delivered a hard hitting drama about real life casteism. It’s a film which ridicules the caste system, and should hurt those who still believe in it! But sigh, such are the ways of the film world.

What doesn't work

For the life of me, I still fail to understand how can a man built like a tank survive everything, yet in the climax feels the pinch as he is shot… in the shoulder? And then falls to the ground after eating four more bullets… and stands up again? What is happening? Meanwhile, Jitendra, the antagonist, is walking normally after getting shot in the stomach.

Vedaa deserves this criticism because it isn’t looking to sell itself as a masala potboiler with cars and goons flying. Realistic deaths for realistic dramas, please. And let’s not even get started on the music of Vedaa. Both songs- Holiyaan and Mummy Ji- are just loo breaks, and test your patience in the middle of an otherwise engaging story.

Performance report card

John is passable. Of course, his build helps and almost convinces us. Almost. For once, I was glad that there was no OTT sequence designed for the male actor’s entry. John enters the frame normally, grieving the loss of his wife (played by Tamannaah Bhatia), killed by terrorists. He avenges her death and pays the price. However, Vedaa decides she will approach the courts for her justice. Sharvari as the titular character understands the assignment. The gradual confidence her character gains comes a full circle in the climax, where she gets to do a lot of action.

The climax is literally set in a court where Sharvari seeks justice, and the fight ensues between her and the upper caste antagonists. John’s character at one point literally uses the hammer of justice as a weapon. See the metaphors?

Abhishek Banerjee (as I have also mentioned in my review of Stree 2) is a very good actor. Passive anger is his character trait, and he pulls it off. Looking intimidating in front of someone like John in a hand to hand combat is quite a feat. Ashish Vidyarthi as the patriarch does well.

To sum it up, Vedaa has its heart in the right place. You see the work put in every frame. Like the hoarding of a cement brand we are shown in multiple shots featuring Vedaa. ‘Toofan’, it reads. Smart, no?