'Afwaah' review: Points for ingenuity, but predictability, monotony mutilates film
What's the story
Sudhir Mishra's social drama Afwaah, headlined by Sumeet Vyas, Bhumi Pednekar, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Sharib Hashmi, was released on Friday.
As its title reveals, it's based on the hatemongering culture propagated by half-baked social media posts and scrutinizes how online platforms become channels for the transfer of deep-rooted venom.
However, for all its noble approach and ingenuity, Afwaah comes packed with some glaring flaws.
Plot
Here's what transpires in the drama
Afwaah revolves around Vicky (Vyas), a young politician, engaged to Nivi (Pednekar), another powerful politician's daughter.
However, when Nivi discovers that Vicky played a central role in a Hindu-Muslim riot, she calls out his "bigotry" and leaves her home.
On her way, she is helped by a complete stranger Rahab (Siddiqui), and Vicky soon triggers a rumor online that their "elopement" is "love jihad."
Positive 1
'Afwaah' wastes no time in coming straight to the point
Afwaah isn't interested in letting the tensions simmer for a while.
Instead, it cuts right to the chase and opens with horrific scenes of a Hindu-Muslim scuffle.
Where have we seen these scenes before?
Yes, in the news.
Even the opening credits are smart; the credits appear on the backdrop of a Twitter homepage to showcase how unverified information travels and begets no consequences.
Positive 2
Social media's critique extends to humanity's critique
Afwaah seemed a little redolent of NH10 to me, especially in the scenes where Rahab and Nivi run for their lives from their own acquaintances.
The film accentuates how the online world conveniently crumples stories and how hashtags are only half-truths, with each new trend pandering to a new set of ideologies.
It breeds the question: Is social media at fault, or humans are?
Positive 3
A fictional story, but is it really so?
The story is fictional but hardly so, having drawn inspiration from several Indian incidents.
Afwaah doesn't even need to say it loud, the conspicuousness stares at you right in the eye.
With its critique of the double-edged nature of the internet culture that gives birth to echo chambers, I felt as if Afwaah was like a prolonged Black Mirror episode entrenched in India.
Personal
The film also makes a point about communal deaths
At one point Rahab says that his death would be fizool (waste), since he would be another common man to lose his life to communal riots. It's a searing dialogue, signifying how humans are nothing more than statistics that are thrown into dumpsters of databases.
Negative 1
Negatives: Its predictability ensures you can easily guess the plot
After an edgy, explosive start, the film opts for the safest route available, which is, predictability and a done-to-death narrative that we're well aware of.
The threads that have been crocheted to produce the movie fall apart at the seams more than once, and it becomes monotonous, repetitive, and even tedious, so much so that it's difficult to stay engaged or even interested.
Negative 2
The 'thriller' lacks tension and the stakes don't feel high
Most of the events transpire in a single night, and when the clock is ticking, the tensions are supposed to run high and are often mirrored in thrillers' fast-paced narrative.
However, the same cannot be said of Afwaah, where foreseeable sequences follow each other, and even the dialogues seem like you heard them just 10 minutes ago.
Almost like the film is plagiarising itself!
Missed potential
Siddiqui's character should have been fleshed out more
Siddiqui comes across as a classic case of missed potential.
Thanks to his proven caliber, you keep waiting for his character to surpass expectations and do something different than what he has been doing throughout.
However, that doesn't happen and his NRI-detached-from-the-real-India character is mostly bereft of substance and structure.
It almost feels like he was the last character to be written! An afterthought.
Personal
Surprisingly, logic was thrown out in the climax
The climax eliminates chances of, say, redemption, for the final "twist" is so preposterous that it made me wonder, "What just happened?" Afwaah stays on one track for two hours but then takes a leap of logic, and then everything feels just anti-climactic.
Verdict
Not a terribly bad film, but better suited for OTT
I wanted to like Afwaah a lot, but couldn't, thanks to its auto-pilot mode.
It often comes to a grinding halt, not leaving much for the viewer to sink their teeth into.
The tropes about social media spiraling out of control are interesting and the performances form the bedrock of Afwaah, but its predicatble plot doesn't warrant a trip to the theaters.
Verdict: 2.5/5.