In the last few years, one has seen a steady surge in the number of films being made around folklore and faith. The latest film to join this bandwagon is ‘The Vvaan’ which happens to be the first feature length film produced by TVF. Co-produced by Balaji Telefilms, the film features Sidharth Malhotra and Tamannaah Bhatia in principal roles. The film has released worldwide in theatres today.
Though Rishi (Sidharth Malhotra) hails from Devanchal, he has been living in Mumbai with his wife Mamta (Tamannaah Bhatia) for several years. Every year, Rishi’s elder brother (Anup Soni) asks him to come to Devanchal during Chhath Puja. Finally, this year, Rishi decides to pay a visit to his hometown. However, the reason is not celebrating Chhath Puja with family. His brother expects him to be there to resolve some issues pertaining to land acquisition. The authorities are planning to cut several trees in the forest and construct a road through it. The villagers, who have a lot of reverence for the forest in their heart, strongly object to this plan. The villagers worship the Van Devi and believe that destroying the forest would draw the ire of the Goddess. Rishi is not a believer and therefore, he extends his support to Deepak (Sunil Grover), a man who is playing a pivotal role in this construction project.
The story and screenplay, penned by Arunabh Kumar, are excellent. The basic plot is highly intriguing and paves the way for an engaging screenplay. The contrast between Rishi’s world in Mumbai and the world inhabited by the residents of Devanchal is very interesting. This, in fact, serves as a good metaphor for believers and non-believers and makes one realize what happens when a non-believer decides to create a sense of faith and devotion in him. While the film is driven by devotion, it also has elements of horror and mythology woven in very nicely.
While the screenplay is consistently engaging, the dialogues (Anandeshwar Dwivedi) are sharp and humorous at several junctures. Most importantly, the dialogues are in sync with the milieu of the film. Deepak Kumar Mishra, who has to his credit shows like ‘Panchayat’, makes his feature-length debut with this film. As a first-time film director, he gives a very good account of himself. He creates a new world for the audience and designs it in such a way that it does not take very long for them to get familiarized with it. On the flipside, a few sequences in the second half appear to be stretched and could have worked better with some trimming.
The cinematography (Manu Anand) is one of the strengths of the film. The beautiful locations in the film have been captured very well. The costumes (Niharika Bhasin) are appealing. The action sequences (Parvez Shaikh) are very good. The production design (Amit Ray and Subrata Chakraborty) is top-notch. The VFX (The VFX by Labyrinth Studios, Divinity Pictures VFX and New Kore VFX Pvt Ltd), by and large, is impressive. The songs (Tanishk Bagchi, Vishal Mishra) are good. The background score (Sandeep Shirodkar) is highly effective.
Sidharth Malhotra delivers a good performance. In the action sequences, he displays a good amount of agility. Tamannaah Bhatia performs very well. Sunil Grover’s performance, as always, is first-rate. Anup Soni delivers a very sincere performance. The same can be said about Shweta Tiwari. Maniesh Paul is hilarious. Avtar Gill and Milind Gunaji leave a mark in brief roles. Sundip Ved is impressive. Sulbha Arya is dependable as always.
Overall, The Vvaan is a well-written and well-directed film that combines different elements like devotion, horror and mythology beautifully. With its strong storytelling and robust narrative, the film should appeal to audiences of all ages.