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Movie Review: Jazbaa – Weak Script, Powerful Performances!

jazbaa_poster

This week we have the most anticipated comeback movie of Aishwarya Rai – Jazbaa releasing. Like every top heroine who made a comeback after a long hiatus, Aishwarya too chose a woman centric role and I must say the decision was wise. However the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

Jazbaa tells the story of prominent criminal lawyer Anuradha Verma (Aishwarya) whose daughter – Sanaya (Sara Arjun) gets abducted in broad daylight.  Anuradha who is a single mother, is informed by the abductor to defend and save a convicted felon – Nayaaz (Chandan Roy Sanyal), charged with rape and murder of a woman – Sia (Priya Banerjee), daughter of college professor Garima Chaudhary (Shabana Azmi), in return of her daughter. Left with no choice, she starts collecting evidence to free Nayaaz.

On the other hand, Yohan (Irrfan Khan) seeks his friend Anuradha’s help to fight his case as he is suspended from his services by Anti Corruption Bureau on corruption charges. However, as Anuradha does not respond back to him, he suspects that not everything is fine with her. Despite Anuradha’s warnings and requests, Yohan gets involved in her daughter’s kidnapping case.  Does Anuradha manage to save Nayaaz and get her daughter back? How is Nayaaz and the kidnappers connected etc. is answered during the course of the movie.

Aishwarya is in top form and delivers quite effectively (if you pardon few sequences where she goes over the top). Irrfan is quite effective as a street-smart cop and his one-liners are quite entertaining (however, after sometime it gets repetitive). Chandan Roy Sanyal stands tall with his performance as Nayaaz and so are the other supporting actors including Shabana Azmi, Siddhant Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni and Jackie Shroff. 

The movie is a rip-off of Korean film 7 Days however, if you compare the Indian version with the original then you can see some gaping holes in the screenplay. To make it appealing to Indian audiences, Sanjay Gupta along with Robin Bhatt has burdened the screenplay with too many dramatic situations and dialogues. If you eliminate the same this edgy thriller is quite a fun to watch.

Music by Amjad-Nadeem, Arko Pravo Mukherjee and Sachin-Jigar is wonderful. Background music by Amar Mohile is quite pacy and gripping. Cinematography by Sameer Arya is decent however,  editing by Bunty Negi could have been better to make the movie sleeker and crispier.

On the whole, I would say it is a decent one time watch movie.

My Verdict: ***

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Movie Review: Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon – ZZzzzzzz

kis-kisko-pyar-karoon, shaiju mathew, kapil sharma, abbas mustan

This week there are four releases out of which Kis Kisko Pyar Karoon directed by Abbas-Mustan stands out along with Madhur Bhandarkar‘s Calendar Girls. The movie is also special because it is the debut movie of Kapil Sharma who has a huge fan following post his widely appreciated and watched comedy show ‘Comedy Nights With Kapil‘. However, the novelty of the movie ends with Kapil because there is nothing new in the story. It seems as if someone has stitched several Govinda hit movies of 1990’s together and served in the name of Kis Kisko Pyar Karoon.

Coming to the story. Kumar Shiv Ram Kishan aka Bholu (Sharma) is a guy who drives fancy cars, works in a fancy building and regularly wears a three-piece suit in Mumbai to show to the world that he is a rich man. In a year’s time or so he acquires three wives and blames his mother for the same. Surprised? So was I ;). It is shown that his mother always told him one should never break a woman’s heart or home, and in his attempt to live by that maxim, Bholu finds himself saddled with three wives. This reminded me of our Puranas, especially Mahabharat where one gets to read about how Draupadi ended up with five husbands. Now there are more such brain-shattering things showcased one after the other eg; Bholu parks all his wives in the same building – ‘Cocktail Towers’ on different floor with none of them getting to know about each other’s existence.

There are few more characters introduced like Bholu’s estranged parents and a father-in-law whom he gets to park in each of his wife’s apartment. Bholu also falls in love with Deepika (Elli Evram) and wants to get married to her (maybe he is not tired of three wives he has already gathered).

The story is a mixture of Saajan Chale Sasural, Gharwali Baharwali, Sandwich etc. from the 90’s directed by David Dhawan. Abbas-Mustan who are known for their stylish thrillers like Baazigar, Khiladi, Race series, Humraaz etc. ventures into unknown territory – comedy and tries to piggyback on Kapil’s popularity. Alas, it attempt is a huge disaster.  I would totally blame the writer (Anukalp Goswami) and director Abbas-Mustan for churning out this outdated fare.

Kapil sleepwalks through his role and shows sparks of ascending the throne left vacant by Govinda. However, if given a chance I would never want to see the 90’s kind of comedy movies coming back in vogue if this movie clicks, which I doubt. Among the actresses Manjari Phadnis does a decent act however others fall flat on their face including Elli Evram. Johny Lever’s daughter Jamie who has debuted with this movie has done a fantastic job as the Marathi speaking house-maid and so has Varun Sharma who plays Bholu’s friend.

The music by Tanishk Bagchi, Dr Zeus, Javed Mohsin and Amjad-Nadeem are no great shakes. Cinematography by  Dilshad is average while editing by Hussain Burmawallah is good.

Overall the movie is not even a one time watch and might not even gather it’s investment at the box office unless Kapil’s luck rubs it otherwise.

My Verdict: *