Haiwaan review: Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan lead an uneven thriller by Priyadarshan, saved by its final act
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Haiwaan review: Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan's stiill from Priyadarshan's movie On paper, Priyadarshan ’s Haiwaan sounds like the kind of thriller that should have plenty going for it: a visually impaired man racing to save a young girl from an antagonist determined to kill her. The premise opens up all kinds of possibilities. But as the movie unfolds, that promise is only partly fulfilled. What looks intriguing on paper becomes, on screen, a mixed bag.
Adding to this, An official Hindi remake of Priyadarshan’s own Oppam (2016), Haiwaan sees Saif Ali Khan step into the role played by Mohanlal in the original. Yep, yet another Mohanlal movie getting a Hindi remake after Drishyam.
Meanwhile, Shyam Rane, a visually impaired society maintenance officer, shares a friendship with Judge Pradhan (Boman Irani), who has kept his young daughter at a convent school, away from the fallout of his troubled past. Years earlier, Parshuram Gokhale (Akshay Kumar), a convict whose life Pradhan was complicit in destroying, had vowed revenge. With only Shyam aware of the girl’s whereabouts, Pradhan confides in him that he fears Parshuram, now rolled out from prison, will come after him and his daughter. What follows forms the rest of the story.
Notably, Priyadarshan is good at building worlds and creating a sense of atmosphere, and Haiwaan has a few sequences where he does that rather convincingly. A frenzied Parshuram, consumed by the urge to kill the young girl, gives the climax a palpable sense of menace, and the sequence is particularly well executed in terms of how it is shot.
As per the latest buzz, The movie leading up to the climax, however, is riddled with plot holes. Saif Ali Khan is not convincing as a visually impaired man from the very beginning. Shyam's lack of sight is supposed to be compensated with a heightened sense of smell and hearing, yet he moves through much of Haiwaan as though his vision is barely a problem. That creates the first major disconnect. Yes, visually impaired people can memorise their surroundings and navigate familiar spaces. But that familiarity has its limits. It works for places they know, not seemingly every location they encounter.
In further updates, The first half, weighed down by Saif’s unconvincing performance and a mishmash of characters, is a dull affair. You find yourself waiting for the antagonist to arrive and inject some much-needed momentum. The second half is where the movie is supposed to deliver the cat-and-mouse chase you came for. Instead, Priyadarshan increasingly treats Haiwaan like a stage play rather than a theatrical thriller.
On top of that, Akshay, who at least looks the part completely, is clearly told to ham it up. This is more like an extended special appearance. Several sequences are stretched into set pieces that seem to operate by their own logic, often defying basic rules of common sense.
There is some humour, thanks to the late Asrani’s scenes, but even here Priyadarshan’s writing feels repetitive. He had staged a similar scene with Asrani in Bhooth Bangla earlier this year, making the deja vu hard to ignore.
Source: Hindustan Times