Movie Review of Punjabi Film Vaapsi starring Harish Verma, Dhriti Saharn, Sameksha Singh, Ashish Duggal and Gulshan Grover. Directed by Rakesh Mehta.
Star cast: Harish Verma, Sameksha, Dhriti Saharan, Ashish Duggal, Mandeep Kaur & Gulshan Grover
Director: Rakesh Mehta
Producer: Miraj Ventures
Music: Gurmeet Singh
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 122 Minutes (U/A Certified)
Synopsis: Older Ajit (Gulshan Grover) is a taxi driver in Germany who hasn’t returned home for many years due to his criminal records in Punjab. In flashback is younger Ajit (Harish Verma) who is a fine hockey player who dreams of playing for India one day. One day Police arrests Ajit charging him as a rebel against the system when he is innocent. DSP Bawa rapes his sister and then releases him. And then Ajit is forced to become a rebel against the system when his sister commits suicide. Will Anit be able to return home and see his mother once or does destiny has something else for him in store?
Review: Director Rakesh Mehta’s Vaapsi is the journey of homecoming of a son who hasn’t seen his mother for the last 20-25 years. The film is said to be inspired from true events partially and is part fiction.
The story, screenplay and dialogues of the film have been written by the director Rakesh Mehta himself. The story is based partially on true events but not even at one point the viewer feels connected or makes an emotional bonding with the story. The writer director has inserted way too many elements in a plot which is just about 2 hours.
The screenplay in the 1st half is gripping and intense in parts as well but lacks the weight in the 2nd half. There are way too many things going on in the mind of the writer-director and that spoils the film completely. Also 3 songs appeared in the last 20 minutes or so of the film which completely lost the momentum of the film. The dialogues were nothing extraordinary.
Coming to Direction, technically Rakesh has sound skills and means business but there were way too many questions which were left unanswered. The film lacked production value and design – the bike used in the flashback seemed modern, guns were completely fake, why were 2 Actors used to portray Ajit, Background of Ajit’s house changes in past and present (In past it has open fields around it and in present it is in a residential area). Overall, adding up all aspects it was a weak directorial effort.
Coming to the performances, the script demanded some strong performances from the star cast and some of them delivered it. Harish Verma, who is a very good actor did a good job here. He was good with his expressions, emotions, dialogue delivery, everything. Dhriti Saharan, who won the Best Actress Award for Sadda Haq didn’t have a meaty role here but she did all right. Sameksha had a small but impactful role. She did good in whatever 3-4 scenes she had.
Gulshan Grover really didn’t have much to do. I still wonder why was he required in the film. Older Ajit could’ve easily been played by Harish itself. Grover had just 4-5 scenes and did all right. Ashish Duggal, the villain of the film also didn’t have much to do. He suddenly disappeared in the 2nd half and was just there in the climax scene and one more scene. There were a lot of supporting actors, who did a good to all right to average job.
Music was composed by Gurmeet Singh. There were 6 songs in total. Maa by Kamal Khan was used more as a background score. Takht Hazare by Raj Ranjodh was all right. Nothing extraordinary worth mentioning here. Pagg Di Puni which was sung by Amrit Maan wasn’t included in the final cut.
Overall, Vaapsi was a let down after the trailer created some buzz for the film. Harish delivered a good performance but that was all. Nobody else had a worthy role to perform and the director’s weak screenplay spoiled the party.
