Tag Archives: Jitendra Kumar

Movie Review: Bhagwat Chapter One – Raakshas (2025)

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3 Stars (out of 4)

Watch Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas on ZEE5

Arshad Warsi gives a standout performance in Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas. Director Akshay Shere and writer Bhavini Bheda reunite for their first feature in fifteen years, producing a compelling and unexpected crime drama.

The film opens in the North Indian town of Robertsganj in October, 2009. An unmarried woman named Poonam fails to return home after a dental appointment, and her family knows something is wrong.

On the tenth day of Poonam’s absence, Robertsganj gets a new police chief: Inspector Vishwas Bhagwat (Warsi). This isn’t a promotion for Bhagwat. He’s reassigned to Robertsganj — accompanied by his wife and young daughter — as punishment for his violent temper. Maybe his mandated anger management courses will mellow him out.

Bhagwat immediately demands an investigation into Poonam’s disappearance, which has been dismissed by police as a simple elopement and weaponized by politicians as a case of “love jihad.” Bhagwat’s second-in-command Mahto (Devas Dixit) isn’t thrilled by his increased workload, but he and his fellow officers soon uncover more cases of missing women throughout the jurisdiction. Whether it’s human trafficking or forced prostitution, Bhagwat and his officers fear they’ve stumbled onto a conspiracy.

Meanwhile, we see an adorable romance brewing between local teacher Sameer (Jitendra Kumar) and a young woman named Meera (Ayesha Kaduska). She rebuffs him at first, but his respectful persistence wins her over. Their shy courtship is adorable, but we know the good times won’t last, given how many other women Meera’s age have disappeared.

Shere and Bheda — who previously collaborated on 2010’s The Film Emotional Atyachar — craft a story that takes unexpected turns without feeling like the twists exist for their own sake. Clever storytelling puts the audience in the same position as Inspector Bhagwat, who also can’t be completely sure how things will turn out.

Warsi is in top form as Bhagwat. Due to tragic events in Bhagwat’s past, he spends every moment trying to keep from lashing out, his sense of powerlessness manifesting as violence. We don’t see any of his anger management sessions, but they must work, as he gets better about holding back as the movie goes on. His newfound patience is rewarded with the information he needs to find justice for the missing women.

Kumar and Kaduska do a wonderful job as the lovebirds. A lot is asked of both of them as the film progresses, and they’re more than up to the task. Also credit to Dixit for doing a fine job as Bhagwat’s beleaguered assistant, who grudgingly accepts that his boss may know what he’s doing.

I hope that Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas truly is the first in a series. The lead character is interesting, with plenty of room to grow and backstory to explore. Shere and Bheda set a tone for their thriller that is emotional and gripping without being so intense that one might not want to go back for more, as with an anxiety-inducing crime flick like Sector 36. There’s real franchise potential here.

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Movie Review: Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (2020)

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3 Stars (out of 4)

Watch Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan on Amazon Prime

Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (“Be Extra Careful of Marriage“, SMZS henceforth) — Bollywood’s first mainstream romantic comedy about a gay couple — is at its most effective when it leans into genre traditions.

Aman Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar) and Kartik Singh (Ayushmann Khurrana) are a dating couple living in Delhi. Aman’s parents Shankar (Gajraj Rao) and Sunaina (Neena Gupta) don’t know that their son is gay, but Kartik is sure they’ll be accepting. The dating couple meets up with the family on a train on the way to Aman’s cousin Goggle’s (Maanvi Gagroo) wedding outside of Allahabad.

On route to the wedding venue, Shankar spots Aman and Kartik kissing. Shankar’s dramatic negative reaction provokes the couple to kiss again, this time in the middle of the dance floor in front of all the wedding guests. Despite Shankar’s and Sunaina’s hilarious attempts to explain the kiss as some sort of family tradition, Goggle’s fiance cancels the wedding, and the Tripathi’s return to Allahabad.

Rather than embrace Aman as he is, his parents insist that he can be converted if removed from Kartik’s influence. They go so far as to get Aman engaged to a cute young woman named Kusum (Pankhuri Awasthy), who is all too eager to marry him.

The rest of SMZS is essentially the second half of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, but if Raj was trying to save Kuljeet from marrying Simran instead of the other way around. In DDLJ, Raj’s strategy was to convince Simran’s family that he was the best person for her to marry. In SMZS, Kartik’s approach is less personal and more about asserting Aman’s right to choose who he wants to date and marry, regardless of gender.

Perhaps SMZS would have struck a stronger emotional chord had Kartik used more of Raj’s strategy. This is a film about a family, but Kartik’s aggressive tactics and the Tripathis’ intransigence make it hard to see how he would fit in if he and Aman did marry. Scenes in which Kartik is emotionally vulnerable play as though they are meant to convince Aman of his loyalty — something that is never really in question — rather than prove his worthiness to the Tripathis.

Writer-director Hitesh Kewalya uses SMZS as an educational opportunity, focusing more on the moral and legal grounds for Aman’s relationship with Kartik instead. This plays into some of the issues that hampered the film SMZS spun off from: 2017’s Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, which Kewalya wrote but did not direct. Both stories periodically lose momentum as the plot gets bogged down in dialogue-heavy scenes.

The slow narrative pace is mitigated by the terrific performances by the entire cast. Awasthy is especially hilarious as Kusum, whose ostentatious shyness feels straight out of an old movie.

One of Kewalya’s strong points is his ability to write humorously about adult topics (Shubh Mangal Saavdhan was about impotence) in a way that never feels vulgar. SMZS is family-friendly. If one of the goals of the film is to normalize the depiction of gay relationships in mainstream Hindi cinema, making it a movie that is accessible to all ages is a great way to accomplish that.

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