Haiwaan movie review: Saif space, snail-paced, no solace…

HaiwaanDirector PriyadarshanActors Saif Ali Khan Akshay KumarRating 155Therersquos a highprofile killing in Haiwaan plus a childhunt of sorts Motives for both border on the absurd As does the murdererrsquos modus operandi let alone the weak police procedural that follows The movie itself though feels much strongerAnd this has everything to do with the fact that this mainstream neonoir is shot with care with convincing actors who seem to take the script more seriously than the audience otherwise wouldIf not for the most part like me yoursquod wonder when does the picture actually start mdash while itrsquos been almost an hour into the plot As inWell obviously all stories have a beginning middle and end academically termed the threeact structure The way I see films for instance is a bit like the delivery in cricketThe runup is obviously the beginning mdash up until the ball hits the bat which is the middle From here on you head to the end depending on where the ball goes before it becomes deadThe story is complete Technically you can draw this analogy with every movie you watch Thank me laterConsider this pic then where the runup begins all the way from the stands The random opening shot is that of Akshay Kumar who must appear at the beginning for he doesnrsquot for twothirds of the pic thereafterActing wise this is a Saif space Haiwaanrsquos lead through and through since you must know is Saif Ali KhanHe plays a blind man There is no mystery to it Still a doubt gets introduced what if hersquos not blind arsquo la Andhadhun He has a family in rural Maharashtra with his sister getting married mom alive and their home thatrsquos mortgagedLikewise he seems to have some sorta surrogate family back in Mumbai where he works as a building manager with one of the occupants Boman Irani being that benefactor of sorts as it were itrsquos hard to tellPlus a child at a boarding school who apparently belongs to Bomanrsquos character that the lead spends time with as wellTherersquos something going between a young couple found making out in an empty apartment and the residents must decide what must be done to them mdash for whatrsquos the urban equivalent of a khap panchayat but a management committee of a building thatrsquos called the society in Mumbai isnrsquot itAlso something on the marital life of a househelp here that Saifrsquos character appears to be involved with as wellNo seriously I could just go on typing The point is that none of these elaborate intros for a runup or peripherals for the background add anything to the lead characters or the main story once it sets in To the extent that yoursquove even forgotten why yoursquore watching this film in the first placeWhich is that at some point therersquos a death Boman Therersquos the killer Akshay And an eyewitness Saif whorsquos blindPerfectly fine short film with a super action sequence between Akshay and Saif jostling after the said crime Itrsquos been ldquofilmed by Priyadarshanrdquo mdash as the director prefers his credits including on postersIn case yoursquore too young to know writerdirector Priyadarshan happens to be one of Indiarsquos most productive filmmakers There was a point in the 2000s hersquod casually flip between Bollywoodrsquos top movie stars every other weekend simply remaking Malayalam movies into Hindi most of them his ownHence he also ran his own repertory company of sidecharacters in Mumbai recurrently employing the likes of Rajpal Yadav late Asrani So with Haiwaan Itrsquos seemingly copypasted from Priyadarshanrsquos Oppam 2016 Irsquom told based on a short story by Govind Vijayan recommended by Mohanlal who played the lead in the originalNo doubt this MalayalamtoHindimovies as Priyan Sirrsquos popular scheme has resulted in some remarkable works in the earlier decades notably Gardish 1993 more so Virasat 1997 adapted from TamilHerersquos whatrsquos changed since Firstly the best of Malayalam movies have leaped into legit world cinema Two the original films already exist online even in their Hindi dubs sometimes as does Oppam that Irsquom not gonna bother with after thisThat said what remains the same is the quality of performance In this case Saif playing the equivalent of Mohanlal mdash drawing you in with his spoton mannerisms of a blind man for an actionthriller rather than caring too much about getting into nuances of a Maharashtrian bloke in the same roleThis is perhaps Saifrsquos first theatrical release since the illfated Adipurush 2023 He remains still the most underrated among the star Khans at the Bollywood boxoffice But that of course is a function of footfalls as it were You wish the film well then donrsquot you always anyway