Despite being a long film of 170 minutes runtime Jawan doesn't feel long, even for a minute. The direction by Atlee has been great here. He has used his Tamil language commercial filmmaking sensibility to direct Jawan and the result is amazing. The confusion that he has tried to create with SRK's character is quite well carried out. SRK's entry is followed by the metro sequene, where the story has moved 30 years later, and the scene just after the metro sequence deepens the confusion. Atlee quite tactfully manages to keep SRK's character as the prime focus. Also, he has presented SRK in a never seen before avatar. The screen presence, swag, body language and dialogue delivery of SRK in this film shows his calibre as a versatile actor. No one would have thought that he could pull off such a massy character so effortlessly. Nayantara as Narmada, a single mother and a cop is badass. Deepika Padukone in a 15 minutes special appearance is very impactful, and Vijay Sethupati as the arms dealer Kalee Gaikwad is bang on, Sunil Grover does well. The supporting cast deliver good performance too.
The story is quite basic and simple to be honest. The vigilante action drama genre is not new to the Tamil film industry and is quite common, but it's fresh for the other domain of audience. The screenplay by Atlee and S. Ramanagirivasan is engaging and intriguing, skipping timelines and juggling between present and past. The 'join the dot' nature of the screenplay engages audience much more. The characters are written well, but I felt Vijay Sethupati's character was average in terms of writing. Villains generally do not stand a chance in Atlee's films, as they are all hero centered. I guess Atlee too understood this and in order to get a strong villain, he roped in Vijay Sethupati to play the villain probably with the thought of Sethupati delivering a solid performance (which he does) inspite of his character written in an average manner. But Vijay Sethupati shines as Kalee the villain, which once again proves his acting calibre.
The technical department has done a fabulous job here. The film made on an estimated budget of 300 crore looks and feels exactly how a 300 crore film would look and feel. Punchy colour grading, great vfx and cgi work, lavish sets, all make Jawan look stylish and sleek yet Indianised.
The camera work by GK Vishnu has been top notch. The sequences (especially action) are nicely shot. I even felt that the makers used the mocobot camera for the theatrical version of the song not ramaiya vastavaiya. The songs are not the strongest part of this film. While some of them do feel good such as chaleya and not ramaiya vastavaiya, they do not have much impact and are even placed in odd places which kinda slows down the film. But if bgm is concerned, Anirudh has just hit it out of the park. The bgm, whenever it hits, gives goosebumps all over. The editing by Ruben has been fast paced, which doesn't let one feel the length of the film.
The action choreography is just mind blowing. International action directors were hired along with few Indian action directors, which makes the action look stunning, sleek, yet desi. Watching SRK doing action with headphones on and a cigar in his mouth is just crazy. The editing has just got in sync with the action, and the slo-mo shots that are produced are stunning.
Finally, Jawan provides a strong message to it's viewers about choosing the right government. The issues that are shown in the film (farmers suicide, politicians making fake promises causing people to suffer, honest people being termed as traitors) have struck a chord with the audience. SRK's character in the film proves on national television that he is a patriot and not an anti national. This pretty much speaks volumes about how SRK was time and again targeted by a group of people for no reasons and was termed as a traitor. Through this film, SRK directly communicates with the viewers, and asks us to question anybody who comes to ask for votes.
All in all, Jawan in an unapologetic vigilante action entertainer with a solid 'need of the hour' message. This movie asks us to open our eyes for our own betterment and also entertains us throughout. Films like these were missing in the Hindi Film Industry for quite a long time but now when it's here, we can see how popular this genre is. Jawan isn't a one man show like most Atlee films, which is probably the one of the highlights of this film. Now that Shahrukh has delivered two back to back blockbusters, wait until Dunki arrives and Shahrukh makes a hat trick of blockbusters.