The film Vedaa – Samvidhan Ka Rakshak revolves around Vedaa Bhairva (Sharvari) who signs up for a rigorous boxing training camp in her college even while she is aware that this step will invite opposition from the village pradhan’s Jitin Pratap Singh’s family, (Abhishek Banerjee) but wants to take that chance, especially since for her, boxing is the way out of her oppressive life in Barmer.
The village head, while maintaining a progressive facade, favours the caste discrimination and his extremely violent brother, Suyog (Kshitij Chauhan), is often seen ruthlessly bashing up those who defy the societal norms. Inspired by real-life stories ‘Vedaa’ speaks out loud against caste- based injustices and crimes.
When a court-martialled Army Major, Abhimanyu (John Abraham) comes to Barmer, winds of change begin to sweep in. He takes Vedaa under his wing and starts training her to become a boxer. The two eventually form a formidable team, when the sheer injustice against her family crosses all limits.
As far as performances are concerned, John Abraham as Abhimanyu is a man of very few words, though his terrific punches and kicks come flying fast and furious to do all the talking. The film scores high on stunts and he is every bit the action-star we’ve been looking forward to on screen. Though Sharvari in the title role is raw and unhinged, she succeeds in holding her own very well in emotionally charged scenes. She is quite resilient and unwilling to give up, which is quite impressive. To his credit, I should say that Abhishek Banerjee channels his menacing side in this role to ace the role of the protagonist.
As the uncle of the village Pradhan, Ashish Vidyarthi is good as usual but veers towards an over the top performance. Kshitij Chauhan is quite good in his role of the antagonist. Though direction by Nikhil Advani is quite in sync with the treatment of the film, sadly quite a few portions are predictable, and follow the formulaic route, reminding you of earlier films like Bhaiyaji and Joram but the hard-core action sequences keep the adrenaline rush going.
All said and done, the film circles back to Vedaa to allow her a brief cathartic speech, though to sum up, it is just a rehash of all similar old stories. It is sad that social messages like this in the first place get overshadowed by the action scenes in the film.
Platform of Release- Theatres
– Review by Jyothi Venkatesh
Cast of Vedaa:
John Abraham as former Major Abhimanyu Kanwar
Sharvari as Vedaa Berwa
Abhishek Banerjee as Jitendar Pratap Singh
Ashish Vidyarthi as Kaka
Kumud Mishra as Mausaji
Rajendra Chawla as Mr Berwa, Vedaa’s father
Tanvi Malhara as Gehna, Vedaa’s sister
Credits of Vedaa:
Directed by Nikkhil Advani
Written by Aseem Arora
Production companies – Zee Studios, Emmay Entertainment, JA Entertainment
Produced by Umesh KR Bansal, Monisha Advani, Madhu Bhojwani, John Abraham
Cinematography by Malay Prakash
Edited by Maahir Zaveri
Music by Amaal Mallik, Manan Bhardwaj, Yuva, Raghav–Arjun (songs)
Kartik Shah (score)