The Abhishek Bachchan and Yami Gautam starrer “Dasvi” released on the popular online streaming platform Netflix on April 7, 2022. When I opened the Netflix app on my smartphone, the featured movie on top of my screen showed the Dasvi movie. I had really liked the trailer of the movie so I didn’t have any second thoughts about clicking the play button.
The movie has a reasonable duration of 2h and 5minutes. I am calling this a reasonable movie duration because we all know how long Bollywood movies usually are. So here is the detailed review of Dasvi, what I liked, and what are the negatives of the film.
Cast:
Abhishek Bachchan, Yami Gautam, Nimrat Kaur, Manu Rishi Chadha, Chittaranjan Tripathi, Danish Husain, Arun Kushwaha, Dhanveer Singh, Abhimanyu Yadav
Director:
Tushar Jalota
Writers:
Ram Bajpai, Kumar Vishwas
Language:
Hindi Original (English subtitles)
Available On:
Netflix
Runtime:
2h:5m
Story:
As I mentioned earlier, the trailer of the movie really looked interesting. The concept looked refreshing. The name of the film “Dasvi” means 10th and refers to metric or 10th class. The story of the film is about a politician, played by Abhishek Bachchan. Ganga Ram Chaudhary is a typical uneducated leader of the ruling party of the government. What’s more, he is the chief minister of the state of Harit Pradesh. Unlike most other politicians, he is rather a proud man of his uneducated background. The scene where he mocks his PA for being an IAS officer and topper of his batch taking orders from an illiterate politician just shows that in the very beginning of the movie.
Everything is going well for Ganga Ram Chaudhary until he gets summoned by a session court for the teacher recruitment scam. The most loved politician of the state, as a TV show presenter in the background calls him, gets sent to jail to everyone’s disbelief. The wife of Ganga Ram, Bimla Devi (played by Nimrat Kaur) becomes the new CM of Harit Pradesh.
As expected, the rich and powerful Ganga Ram Chaudhary gets all the VIP treatment inside the jail. This is where Yami Gautam enters the scene. She is the new superintendent of the jail. She is strict, unfearing, and honest in her duties. Chaudhary loses all his VIP treatments. On the other side, Bimla Devi tastes the greed of power and tables start to turn. She grows from a housewife to a power-hungry leader as Ganga Ram is made to prepare chairs in jail.
Ganga Ram finally finds a way to skip work as he tells the jail superintendent that he wants to complete Dasvi (Tenth or Metric). Students inside the jail are exempted from jail work. What starts as a work-skip excuse turns into the path of enlightenment for Ganga Ram.
So will Ganga Ram pass the Dasvi exam and get back his CM seat from hereon, which brings about the very interesting and heartfelt part of the movie.
The Goods:
The best thing about the movie is its novel fresh concept. The casting of the movie is spot on. The ever underrated Abhishek Bachchan has done a commendable job as Ganga Ram Chaudhary. He has aced his part. Yami Gautam has once again proven his acting capabilities. As we all know, Nimrat Kaur is a wonderful actress so she needs no appreciation. I hope she takes more fun characters like this. The supporting cast has supported the main leads brilliantly. The stand-outs have to be Ganga Ram’s prison partners inside the jail.
There are few scenes that bring about the essence of the movie. The scene on casteism, Ganga Ram’s speech on education, and when his exam results are finally announced are done brilliantly.
The Bads:
While the concept of the movie is very intriguing, the screenplay lacks a convincing punch about it. The humor isn’t that great either. Just a few laughs here and there. Bimla Devi’s character transformation from an ordinary wife to a power-hungry leader happens too fast and does not appear convincing. The dance numbers feel very forced and unnecessary. The ending is way too predictable in my opinion. After finishing the movie, you would feel many things could’ve been just avoided to make this one crisper and more humorous.
Verdict: Should you watch it?
If you are looking for a Bollywood movie to watch with your family on Netflix, then you should definitely check out Dasvi. It is a fun movie to watch. Don’t have great expectations and you would like this movie as a one-time fun watch.
My Rating:
⅗. Don’t go for the critics, ratings and negative reviews of the movie. This one is a fun watch, reasonably good movie overall.