Insipid home coming

Jasmine Singh

Indeed, the tragic happenings of 1984 still send shivers down the spine. Many lives were destroyed in those turbulent times, with the youth of Punjab being hit the most. Punjabi film Vaapsi comes up with one such story, of a hockey player who was forced to pick up weapon due to circumstances. The movie also tells the story of his homecoming, his ‘vaapsi’. 

Directed by Rakesh Mehta, ‘Vaapsi’ stars Harish Verma, Ashish Duggal, Sameksha, Dhrriti Saharan, Mandeep Kaur and Gulshan Grover. Even though director Rakesh Mehta has picked up a subject that has found many versions on the silver screen before, he tried to give it a different spin by saying the story from a hockey player’s point of view. 

Vaapsi starts on a good note, with the story falling in place within minutes. The scenes are short and crisp. Since it was a hockey player’s story, director Rakesh Mehta could have brought out this player’s (played by actor Harish Verma) involvement and passion in the sport, which he couldn’t. 

For Vaapsi, right from the plot to the pace, everything begins to fall apart soon after the interval. To begin with, too many songs crack the momentum. Instead of increasing the intensity of the characters, Vaapsi snaps the emotional connect that the audience has established in the first half. One gets to see ‘more than wanted melodrama’ and not emotions in the second half! The scenes are stretched, leaving us with a feeling of déjà vu. (Courtesy, the number of films that have been made on the subject of 1984). 

More than often, you feel that you have heard some of the dialogues of Vaapsi in some Punjabi film before. Again, thanks to the previous films made on the same topic. Had Rakesh Mehta given weight to the hockey player and brought the pain of the sportsman out, Vaapsi would definitely have made an impact.

Actor Harish Verma plays Ajit Singh, the hockey player in the film. It goes without saying that Harish is one of the very few talented actors in the Punjabi film industry. In Vaapsi, however, the actor doesn’t meet our expectations. Neither do you feel his passion for the sport nor do you feel his pain. The director could not cut out his character properly, which was the main catch of the film. 

Ashish Duggal plays the bad cop; his character also looks unfinished. Even though he should have been in the story throughout (by this we mean screen space), the director takes him off for quite a while. Vaapsi brings out some talent in the form of actress Sameksha, who does justice to her small role. Dhrriti Saharan does say her dialogues well, with an expressionless face! Mandeep Kaur, who plays Harish’s mother, could not do justice to the pain of a mother who lost her daughter and family to circumstances. As for talented actor of Bollywood, Gulshan Grover... we, wonder what made him take up this film in the first place. 

Vaapsi has some nice songs. If only the director had invested a little more thought in establishing the main character of his film, if only he had added little more intensity to his characters, the film would have been a well-appreciated return of the player Ajit Singh. Or let’s say artiste Harish Verma!

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