Nonton Film Judwaa (1997) Full Movie

Nonton Film Judwaa (1997) Full Movie Sub Indonesia

Review Film Judwaa (1997)
Judwaa 2 is right around the corner and this is the best time to look back at its predecessor, the original Judwaa starring Salman Khan and directed by the master comedy filmmaker, David Dhawan. When this film came out in 1997, Dhawan had already peaked his art with films like Raja Babu, Coolie No. 1 and Aankhen. Judwaa in many ways started off his downward spiral into making films that forced comedy rather than extracting as was his forte in his best films. He made a few delightful films after this too but they were few and far apart and it has to be accepted that he never quite reached the pinnacle that he had in the years before it.

Judwaa tells the story of two brothers Raja and Prem both played by Salman. At the time of their birth, they are separated by an evil goon who lifts one of them from the hospital and leaves him by the railway track to die in order to avenge his incarceration by the doppelganger’s father played by Dilip Tahil. While one of the brothers grows up to be a street-smart thief, the other receives education in the US to become a singer. As fate would have it, they both cross paths soon enough in Mumbai which kicks start a chain of events that would see them reunited and will also pit them against an enemy from their past.

Judwaa is loud, meaningless and a caricature of itself. Let’s start off with the biggest nonsense of it all in the film. The reflex action between the brothers. This gimmick is so atrociously used that you are bound to go WTF! It would have worked had there been some parity in the manner in which it is used. Sometimes Raja’s action influences Prem while on other occasions, Prem’s action influences Raja. This is just so conducive and blatant that you will raise a finger or two on the execution. The final climax where the brothers fight two separate people in two separately choreographed action scenes but we have to believe that one is replicating the action of the other just made me go crazy. The biggest problem with this gimmick is that it keeps appearing and disappearing.

The next issue with the film is the absence of a coherent story. It feels like an assemblage of scenes that were assembled and made up as the shooting went on. There are gaps between the storyline and unexplained arrivals and departures which are never fully explained. There are characters and situations that are made up just for the sake of extracting some crude humor which doesn’t work at any level. The film is laced with songs that became very popular in its days but when you watch this film now, those songs test your patience. Also, the fact that Prem is a trained singer and Raja in a scene easily slips into his shoes was a big Ho! Ho! for me.

Salman Khan is a charmer and it is his charm that takes the film forward. I cannot think of anyone else apart from Govinda to have done a better job with this character. He does well as both the brothers but his tapori act as Raja is most endearing. There are so many un-realized comic opportunities that if fully realized would have constituted an extremely well-made film. Karishma Kapoor is loud, in your face and irritating at many junctures. Shakti Kapoor is great in the company of Salman and I believe he is a better comedian than he is a villain. Anupam Kher and Satish Shah are generic. They have done hundreds of roles of similar type and there is nothing to write home about as far as their act is concerned. Rambha is sidelined and reduced to a pin-up girl.

I really like Mukesh Rishi as an actor. He is just as a good a villain as he is a positive character when he plays one (Sarfarosh). But here he is wasted in a role that is neither serious nor comic. It is a part that could have been done by anyone and everyone. Making him do the part only reduced his credibility as an actor. Having said that, he has done worse in the future. Ishrat Ali as Rishi’s mentor is himself. He plays the same character over and over again.

Judwaa is a remake of 1994 Telugu movie Hello Brother, which itself is based on the 1992 Jackie Chan’s movie Twin Dragons. Thus it cannot be said that they dint have the opportunity to think it over properly and make it more in the lines of what they didn’t like about the first two films. David Dhawan is known for his comedy and his epic sense of situational comedy. For Judwaa to be as unfunny as it is was a major shock for me. I didn’t get a chance to see it in theaters in 1997 but I recently re-watched it on YouTube for the purpose of this review and was barely able to sit through it. Made by the same director, Coolie No. 1 is a film that I could still watch from the first scene to last and without forwarding the songs. The same can be said about Aankhen and Bol Radha Bol and Raja Babu.

Judwaa is just not funny enough to be called a comedy. It is not serious enough to be called an action film and it is not dramatic enough to be called a drama. Hell! It’s not even romantic enough to be called a romance. It neither tries to be great nor ends up becoming anything more than a passable watch. If the recent remake is anywhere near as bad as this one, it will be a washout. That also begs the question that what was the need of remaking a film that was this bad. I guess it’s the director dad, giving his hero son a chance to showcase his muscles and wit. Whether or not that will work will be a different story. It didn’t the first time around though.