#SudhirMishra weaves his magic again with a gripping story set over a night. It is a bold, fearless, unbridled idea told in a forthright manner, a tale of our times and how we are prone to glibly believing everything that social media has to throw at us. It has elements of love jihad, cow politics, IT cells, social media mercenaries, political violence and feudal misogyny all thrown into one raging cauldron!
#Afwaah on #Netflix is set in Sawalpur in Rajasthan. Nivi, aka Nivedita (#BhumiPednekar) runs away from her fiance Vikcy Bana / Vikram Singh (#SumitVyas) as she cannot stand the feudal mindset of the aspiring politician. Along the way she meets US returned, jazz loving, Range Rover driving Rahab Ahmed (#NawazuddinSiddiqui), who tries to help her. Bana throws a fit and employs a digital mercenary to spread false rumors about the couple. They are accused of Love Jihad. The rumours spread like wild fire on ‘Qwitter’! A subplot involves Chandan (#SharibHashmi), Bana’s henchman who is torn between values and shows you how political bigotry and feudal misogyny are strange bedfellows. The other track has lady officer ( beautifully plated by #TJBhanu) who is forced to sleep with her superior cop played by #SumitKaul. Rahab and Nivi finally make it to Nahargarh where his five is at an event with the literati who cannot come to terms with the social mayhem outside.
#Afwaah is co-produced by #AnubhavSinha and the story is written by #SudhirMishra, #NisargMehta and #ShivaBajpai. The story is set in Rajasthan and the landscape and dialogues lend credibility to the narrative. The last time #Siddiqui worked with #Mishra was in #SeriousMen in 2020. Compared to the naive intensity of that role, this one is breezy and #Siddiqui leans into it with the ease that a Kohli would launch into a cover drive. Meanwhile, #BhumiPednekar has little to work with and there is not enough meat in the way her role is crafted. She manages to salvage the role of Nivi though.The real surprise in the pack is #SumeetVyas, as he transitions from the romantic hero image that had been cultivated to the mean murderous rage-filled persona; he looks positively ominous in his role as a political aspirant seeped in feudal misogyny. #SharibHashmi is notable as the rogue Chandan.
#Afwaah is a bold, courageous idea. Perhaps a tad too overwhelming with its tone of moral superiority and in the second half brings down the narrative under its own weight. The poetry of #FaizAhmedFaiz and the track “Aaj Ye Basant” by #MameKhan and #SunetraBanerjee are redeeming aspects of the film. The editing by #AtanuMukherjee is crisp and effective and the cinematography by #MauricioVidal captures the horrors of the night against the topography of the Rajasthan milieu well.
The film is a must watch for those who believe in the power of a superior craft. This is old world storytelling that has maximum impact. There are clever nuances to watch out for as well. The GPS on Rehab’s car calls out “Congestion Ahead; Recalibrating your journey” ; not that this helps too much in real life. At the end of the day, times have changed and a good story told well has the same impact as one that preaches a moral lesson and seeks to convert the unconverted !
