3 Deewarein- Too twisty to digest?

DIR: Nagesh Kukunoor

Recently again I was searching for a movie which is “lesser know” and “is on Netflix”. My lockdown is practically devoted towards these kinds of keyword searches unless I make up my mind form a list of such movies. So, a couple of days ago, I decided to go with a movie called 3 deewarein. The movie stars some best of the artists like Juhi Chawla, Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff and Nagesh Kukunoor. The movie has been directed by Nagesh Kukunoor himself. If you don’t know who he is, then let me tell you that he has done a bunch of critically acclaimed movies like- Dor, Iqbaal, Hyderbad Blues, Dhanak, Lakshmi etc. One of his so called failed ventures is Bombay to Bangkok.

Now coming straight to the movie. The movie revolves around the story of 3 prisoners (Naseeruddin- who has already fled 3 jails earlier, Jackie and Nagesh) who are serving death sentences. These prisoners are accused of murder and all of them have different perspective to the sentences they are serving. Meanwhile, Juhi Chawla who is a documentary film maker comes to the jail to understand the system and specifically to study those three criminals who are serving the death sentences. The movie is somewhat (mind it, not all) inspired from Shawshank’s Redemption but here the climax is way too different.  The film beautifully portrays the lives of the prisoners who are living in a jail where the jailer (played by Gulshan Grover) believes in giving them as much freedom as possible within the boundaries of the jail. Through their stories of their deeds, and their claims of their innocence, Juhi Chawla finds a direction in her own life which is already disturbed by an abusive husband of hers. She finds solace and a meaning to her life through her work.

In my opinion, the issue that I think lies with the story is the scene where the big twist comes. I don’t know if it makes any sense, but I personally think if a person is portraying revenge, his or her eyes plays a vital role to portray the feeling of vengeance .This is what I found lacking in that scene where the character seeks revenge (I won’t be telling the name and spoiling the movie in case you have not yet watched it). Also another thing I felt is that the twist was justified forcefully by linking the lives of the three prisoners. Also, I could not find a reason why a prisoner with such high flight risk is being kept in a prison where security is minimum and freedom is more. Other than these three things, I must say that this movie is worth watching.