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Through this action-packed, absolutely crazy ride of a movie, writer-director Atlee and Bollywood legend Shah Rukh Khan team up in Jawan to question the country’s corruption in multiple fields, including, but not limited to the agricultural sector, the healthcare industry, and the electoral system. They do so through an amped-up, explosion-filled spectacle led by a high-tech Robin Hood and his merry women inmates, who use terrorism in order to pay out loans for poor farmers and other promises that politicians give to their voters. It’s also intertwined with a romance plot that sees the vigilante and the single-parent counterterrorist chief in an unknowing enemies-to-lovers, mistaken identity marriage. It’s a strange film that tries to tackle as many political messages as possible, but it’s also downright entertaining with every plot twist it takes.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller

Actor: Aaliyah Qureishi, Ashlesha Thakur, Atlee, Bharat Raj, Boxer Dheena, Deepika Padukone, Eijaz Khan, Girija Oak, Jaffer Sadiq, Kenny Basumatary, Leesha Eclairs, Lehar Khan, Mukesh Chhabra, Naresh Gosain, Nayanthara, Omkar Das Manikpuri, Priyamani, Ravindra Vijay, Ridhi Dogra, Sanjay Dutt, Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, Sanya Malhotra, Shah Rukh Khan, Smita Tambe, Sunil Grover, Vijay Sethupathi, Viraj Ghelani, Yogi Babu

Director: Atlee

Rating: NR

With an urgent subject and plenty of that trademark Netflix polish, Bhakshak is nothing if not watchable and consistently engaging. However, for all of its motivated performances and high production values, there actually doesn't seem to be much that happens in the film by way of investigation or character development. Much of the plot seems to progress solely on inertia, or through conversations that only ever repeat the film's themes. And with every new, intense scene of young girls being threatened or hurt at the hands of abusive men, it becomes harder to understand what these scenes are trying to tell us, especially when they keep the victims as voiceless as they are from the beginning.

Genre: Crime, Drama

Actor: Aditya Srivastava, Bhumi Pednekar, Chittaranjan Tripathy, Murari Kumar, Pubali Sanyal, Sai Tamhankar, Sanjay Mishra, Surya Sharma, Tanisha Mehta, Umesh Shukla, Vibha Chibber

Director: Pulkit

Rating: R