Atlee’s Jawan (2023) is an epic tale of melodrama, action and romance. The fi lm reopens the possibility that cinema can provide a grand platform to the damped voices of the passive citizenry without compromising on its commercial and entertainment quotients. Instead, its grand success showcased that the audience is equally entertained by the fi lm’s bold anti-establishment rhetoric and can provide a high podium to the problems of the poor and marginalised people on the silver screen.

Atlee’s Jawan (2023), though on every account an electrifying “masala” thriller and a mass entertainer, creatively reignites anti-establishment values and heroically reprimands the ruling political class for its immorality. In an epic tale of melodrama, action and romance, it criticises India’s current neo-liberal regime boldly and provides a high podium to the problems of the poor and marginalised people on the silver screen. When many popular Hindi fi lms are unapologetically endorsing the objectives of the union government and supplementing the ideological concerns of Hindutva politics, Jawan’s narrative is a rare example of bold opposition. It picks up themes associated with left-wing populism, highlights the problems of poor farmers, women, and the working classes, and showcases that cinema can be socially responsible and autonomous in its political outlook.

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QOSHE - Examining Anti-establishment Populism in Jawan - Harish S Wankhede
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Examining Anti-establishment Populism in Jawan

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27.03.2024

Atlee’s Jawan (2023) is an epic tale of melodrama, action and romance. The fi lm reopens the possibility that cinema can provide a grand platform to the damped voices of the passive citizenry without compromising on its commercial and entertainment quotients. Instead, its grand success showcased that the audience is equally entertained by the fi lm’s bold anti-establishment rhetoric and can provide a high........

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