There is something particularly disappointing about Haiwaan because the film arrives with the kind of combination that makes you want to believe in it even before you watch it. Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan and Priyadarshan together again. On paper, that is the sort of reunion that should make a film enthusiast curious.
And then there is the title itself. Haiwaan. It is a word that does a lot of work before the film has even begun. You hear it and expect someone dangerous, physical, unpredictable, perhaps even brutal.
After watching the film, though, I was left wondering whether the biggest problem was not the story at all, but the way that story was translated into characters on screen.
This is where, as someone who has followed both Akshay and Saif for years, I found myself thinking about the casting more than I perhaps should have. What if the two had simply played each other’s characters?
Akshay Kumar as Shyam, the blind man who is anything but vulnerable, could have been an interesting proposition. The character is sharp, trained in martial arts and has the ability to strategise his actions. Akshay comes with that physical credibility built into him. He is an action star. More importantly, he has spent a considerable part of his career making precision, agility and physical control look effortless.
You could have believed this character before he even did anything.
Saif Ali Khan as Parshuram is another thought that kept coming back to me. Here is a man driven by revenge after losing his family. He does not necessarily need to be the most physically intimidating person in every scene. He needs anger, determination and presence. The action can come in moments.
And perhaps that would have played more naturally into Saif’s strengths.
Saif’s screen image has generally been very different from Akshay’s. The suave romantic hero, the urbane man, the sophisticated upper-class character. And yes, there is Langda Tyagi, which is precisely why we know Saif can surprise you when the material and character click.
That is what makes this thought experiment interesting. I am not saying Saif cannot play a physically threatening character or that Akshay cannot play something dramatically restrained. Actors should not be imprisoned by their images. But cinema is also about what an audience instinctively believes. And Haiwaan demands that belief at almost every turn.
This is why the casting becomes more frustrating than it might otherwise have been. The basic idea had possibilities. The characters had enough in them to create an interesting clash. But when you put the wrong physical and psychological energies into those parts, even a potentially effective scene can start looking like an actor performing a character rather than a character living inside the actor.
Perhaps the strangest part is that this is not something I expected to be thinking about after an Akshay-Saif film directed by Priyadarshan. This was supposed to be the fun of seeing these three names together again. Instead, I walked out thinking about what might have happened if the casting sheet had been turned upside down.
Maybe the writing would still have needed work. Maybe the film would still have had its problems. A role reversal cannot magically fix a screenplay. But it might have made the characters easier to believe. And sometimes that is the difference between watching a story unfold and actually getting pulled into it. For a film called Haiwaan, that belief was everything.
