Haiwaan review: Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan lead an uneven thriller by Priyadarshan, saved by its final act | Bollywood

HaiwaanDirector: PriyadarshanCast: Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar, Boman Irani, Saiyami Kher, Shriya PilgaonkarRating: ★★★On paper, Priyadarshan’s Haiwaan sounds like the kind of thriller that should have plenty going for it: a visually impaired man racing to save a young girl from an antagonist determined to kill her. The premise opens up all kinds of possibilities. But as the film unfolds, that promise is only partly fulfilled. What looks intriguing on paper becomes, on screen, a mixed bag.The plotAn official Hindi remake of Priyadarshan’s own Oppam (2016), Haiwaan sees Saif Ali Khan step into the role played by Mohanlal in the original. Yep, yet another Mohanlal film getting a Hindi remake after Drishyam.Shyam Rane, a visually impaired society maintenance officer, shares a friendship with Judge Pradhan (Boman Irani), who has kept his young daughter at a convent school, away from the fallout of his troubled past. Years earlier, Parshuram Gokhale (Akshay Kumar), a convict whose life Pradhan was complicit in destroying, had vowed revenge. With only Shyam aware of the girl’s whereabouts, Pradhan confides in him that he fears Parshuram, now released from prison, will come after him and his daughter. What follows forms the rest of the story. Priyadarshan is good at building worlds and creating a sense of atmosphere, and Haiwaan has a few sequences where he does that rather convincingly. A frenzied Parshuram, consumed by the urge to kill the young girl, gives the climax a palpable sense of menace, and the sequence is particularly well executed in terms of how it is shot.Saif Ali Khan is not convincing as visually impaired manThe film leading up to the climax, however, is riddled with plot holes. Saif Ali Khan is not convincing as a visually impaired man from the very beginning. Shyam's lack of sight is supposed to be compensated with a heightened sense of smell and hearing, yet he moves through much of Haiwaan as though his vision is barely a problem. That creates the first major disconnect. Yes, visually impaired people can memorise their surroundings and navigate familiar spaces. But that familiarity has its limits. It works for places they know, not seemingly every location they encounter.The first half, weighed down by Saif’s unconvincing performance and a mishmash of characters, is a dull affair. You find yourself waiting for the antagonist to arrive and inject some much-needed momentum. The second half is where the film is supposed to deliver the cat-and-mouse chase you came for. Instead, Priyadarshan increasingly treats Haiwaan like a stage play rather than a theatrical thriller.Akshay, who at least looks the part completely, is clearly told to ham it up. This is more like an extended special appearance. Several sequences are stretched into set pieces that seem to operate by their own logic, often defying basic rules of common sense.There is some humour, thanks to the late Asrani’s scenes, but even here Priyadarshan’s writing feels repetitive. He had staged a similar scene with Asrani in Bhooth Bangla earlier this year, making the deja vu hard to ignore.The film is therefore left relying on its climax to do the heavy lifting and, to its credit, it manages to salvage some of what came before. But when the payoff lasts barely 20 minutes in a film that runs for two hours and 44 minutes, the imbalance is hard to overlook.Pritam’s music is one of the film’s weakest links. The songs are forgettable, the compositions lack the spark one expects from a composer of his calibre. Their placement within the narrative is even more jarring. It is difficult to understand why these songs were included at all.Akshay Kumar could have done so much more with Parshuram had the writing given him more to work with. There are flashes of the performance and character that might have been, but they remain just that: flashes of potential that the film never quite realises. Shriya Pilgaonkar as Naina doesn't leave an impact. Same goes for Boman Irani as Judge Pradhan. VedictOverall, Haiwaan is a thriller that promises more than it delivers. The premise is strong, and the climax finally brings the tension that the film has been searching for. But getting there is a long journey. The writing is inconsistent, and too many plot points require the audience to overlook basic questions of logic. The songs further disrupt the film’s rhythm rather than enhancing it. There are flashes of a gripping thriller buried within Haiwaan, particularly in its final hour, but they are not enough. What could have been a taut thriller instead becomes an uneven watch.