Tanvi The Great Movie Review: Anupam Kher swaps nuance for nationalism in misguided drama 
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Tanvi The Great Movie Review: Anupam Kher swaps nuance for nationalism in misguided drama

Tanvi The Great Movie Review: The film quickly spills over to become loud, melodramatic and overly patriotic for no reason

Shreyas Pande

Tanvi The Great Movie Review:

What’s there in a name? A lot when it comes to an Anupam Kher directorial. The title of his 2002 debut Om Jai Jagadish (2002) was inspired from a bhajan (hymn), which informs us the names of the film’s three protagonists, Om, Jai and Jagadish. When Kher announced his second directorial, Tanvi The Great, the title carried the aura of a period action-drama, maybe about a forgotten woman warrior from history. Considering his penchant for recently starring in films that sensationalise history and bend the truth (The Kashmir Files (2022), The Vaccine War (2023)), it seemed like a fitting outcome carrying a similar tone. But, that’s not what it is. The ‘great’ Tanvi here is a young, innocent girl. Her superpower, as the film wants us to believe, is autism.

In just over a month, Bollywood has produced two films centered on people with disabilities. The memory of Aamir Khan’s Sitaare Zameen Par is still fresh in mind as it featured actors with neurodivergence. While it was a delight to see the representation, the film did little to show the complexities they face in daily life. It was all too happy, too sweet, too good to be true. The gaze unwittingly turned them into ‘special’ beings who are full of life and energy. The hint, again, is in the title, where they are referred to as ‘Sitaare’ or stars. Like Tanvi, who has to carry the burden of being ‘great’, weaving an inspiring tale from her neurological condition and standing out not really as an equal but as someone supposedly superior to neurotypical folks. What was ‘Sabka apna apna normal’ in SZP becomes ‘Different but no less’ here.

Directed by: Anupam Kher

Starring: Shubhangi, Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi, Jackie Shroff, Arvind Swamy, Karan Tacker, Nasser, Boman Irani and Iain Glen

Beyond the constant plugging of the slogan, the film does give a window to the experience of living with autism. Debutante Shubhangi blends into Tanvi’s straightforward way of speaking, distinct mannerisms and peculiar walking style, becoming a rather investing anchor point to understanding her situation. She is a gifted musician, always paying close attention to words that are spoken and suggestions that are being given. Like when her mother, Vidya (Pallavi Joshi) deconstructs the meaning of complex Hindi words, Tanvi is later seen using them in sentences from memory. Or when she has her own inside jokes to ordinary things which she delivers with a “Funny, no?” exclamation and chuckles to herself. We also see her getting panic attacks when situations don’t necessarily favor her, for instance, when she runs out of a room, wailing that it doesn’t have windows. These are some smaller moments spread unevenly through the first half, filled with a sense of tenderness. On other occasions, the film quickly spills over to become loud, melodramatic and overly patriotic for no reason. Lest we forget, this is still an Anupam Kher directorial.

Tanvi is given a dream to join the army. Her father, Samar Pratap Raina (Karan Tacker), was a soldier who died due to a landmine blast while being on his way to Siachen, an army posting he was looking forward to. When Tanvi shares her dream with her grandfather, retired Col. Pratap Raina (Kher), he almost calls her 'abnormal' only to later allow her to attend an army academy. After spending time there, Tanvi goes through a transformation. It seems like her autism wears away after the ‘discipline’ she followed for some time.

In the second half, her entire existence becomes an object to serve the patriotism which the film wants to peddle. A scene suddenly shifts to an army ball where she sings a rather tacky patriotic song which turns into a tackier music video as the tricolour superimposes on her closeup shot. This was still just the second act. There is an enormous emotional sway awaiting at the climax where Tanvi has to actually elevate her ‘greatness’ by doing something that has never been done before. From Delhi to Lansdowne, she finally goes to Siachen, carrying with her the superficial burden of Kher’s hollow theatrics. Tanvi loses her autism for jingoism. The VFX heavy visuals and mind-numbing music, aimed to create a spectacle of inspiration, only leads to further perspiration.

Facilitating the ‘impossible feat’ in the climax is Jackie Shroff’s Brigadier Joshi, who arrives in a chopper only to deliver a half-hearted, almost laughable reference to the high-octane final battle from Border (1997). It hardly helps that his nickname in the army is ‘Tiger’. Even M.M. Keeravani’s songs go from heartfelt — like the lively blend of classical tunes in ‘Manchala Manva’ — to absolutely absurd by the end, mirroring the film’s confused state of being. Like a line in another song that goes, ‘Nafrat ki galiyon se dur aata hai mudna hame (We know how to turn away from the alleys of hate)’ — an antithetical reference to The Kashmir Files, perhaps?

Kher does it all and forgets the soul. Even his performance stays believable at first but becomes almost animated later. His idea of educating us is designing Vidya’s character as an expert on autism and delivering half-baked lectures about it through patchily dubbed sequences from English to Hindi. There is nothing to reflect, little to understand and not much to empathise with. Kher’s vision turns autism into a prop and patriotism into prosthesis. The weight of ‘greatness’ ultimately turns into a cinematic overkill. 

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