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I was actually planning on reviewing the Argentine crime-thriller “Recurrence” this week, the third installment in the “Pipa” trilogy following “Perdida” and “Intuition”—and I managed to watch all three this weekend. But Netflix did me dirty this time. It released a string of movies and series I had previously watched trailers of and anticipated. So I was forced to stay indoors the whole weekend and glare at my TV screen, in sheer joy.

So the “Pipa” trilogy gets an aggregate rating of four stars and falls under the must-watch category. Also on the must watch list is the Korean action-thriller “Carter.” It may not be an amazing movie but the visuals are mind-boggling. With mediocre VFX, the cinematography and editing in the film will sometimes make you rewind a scene and ask yourself “How did they do THAT?”

Now coming back to my senses from all the awesomeness currently available on Netflix, I review the Alia Bhatt-starrer “Darlings,” because it caters to a wider audience and I have started to love Bhatt as an actor based on her recent performances. 

Darlings is a black comedy co-written and directed by Jasmeet K. Reen and produced by Gauri Khan, Alia Bhatt and Gaurav Verma under the Red Chillies Entertainment and Eternal Sunshine Productions banners.

Actor and co-producer Bhatt plays Badru, a housewife married to Hamza (Vijay Varma). The couple appear happy and in love but their relationship is strained by Hamza’s drinking habit and abusive nature. Hamza is an alcoholic who routinely inflicts physical abuse on Badru—and makes her believe he hit her out of love. The gullible Badru buys it and forgives Hamza each time. 

Badru’s mother Shamshu (Shefali Shah), on the other hand, knows Hamza will never change and will keep abusing her daughter. She time and again begs Badru to leave her husband, to no avail. But then, one day, a disaster in Badru’s life caused by Hamza’s recklessness forever changes her. From an innocent housewife, Badru transforms into a vengeful woman, seeking to get back her self-respect.

Within this premise, the two female leads—Bhatt and Shah—paint the stage with glorious colors in Darlings. Bhatt is on a successful acting sprint with back-to-back critically acclaimed performances. I don’t understand why she gets unnecessary hate for belonging to a filmy family. That could have gotten her her first role but after that the actor has been impeccable in her works. In Darlings, she delivers another masterpiece of a performance as Badru. 

Shefali Shah also finally gets her worth in a film. The actor with immense potential and skills has mostly been reduced to playing supporting roles in her career, much of which were forgotten in the grand scheme of things. But in Darlings, she gets a strong character and ample screen time to display her skills. Together, the two ladies playing the mother-daughter duo take the story forward in a tight-kind screenplay that is predictable yet shocking at the same time. 

Vijay Verma, who shot to fame in Bollywood with the commercially successful “Gully Boy”, holds his grounds firmly against the ladies. Verma’s Hamza is a vindictive chauvinist, skilled at gaslighting. The actor manages to convince the audience how intrinsically flawed Hamza is and how much we can detest him.

The writing of Darlings gives it multi-layered depth while the direction captures the minute details of the characters’ life and surroundings. The cinematography and the background music need a special mention for not being outstanding. Yes, you heard that write. 

Anil Mehta’s cinematography and Prashant Pilla’s background score blend in with the characters and the settings. This creates a harmony between all things beautiful, despite the film’s darkness. 

Who should watch it?

Like I said, Darlings caters to a wide group of audiences—from thriller movie lovers to Alia Bhatt fans. It may not be one of the best Indian thrillers of all time but it is definitely top-notch. The way the film builds around the two central female characters is something unique and highly enjoyable too. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Run time: 2hrs 13 mins

Genre: Thriller/drama

Actors: Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah, Vijay Verma

Director: Jasmeet K. Reen

The year is 1994. The camera zooms down on a residence in a quiet neighborhood somewhere in Kerala. Without cutting to another scene, the camera gets into street view and enters the house where a small but evidently happy family is discussing its plans for the day. A few verbal exchanges follow between the characters before the camera and, still without cutting, the shot moves to find the main protagonist—Nambi Narayanan.

The meticulousness of the long opening shot showing the close bonding between Nambi’s family and his humorous nature are representative of the entire film. Actor R. Madhavan, who plays the main character of Nambi, is the Swiss knife in the movie “Rocketry: The Nambi Effect” which he also writes, produces and directs. Rocketry is a biographical drama dedicated to Nambi Narayanan, a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organization, who was wrongfully accused of espionage and made a villain by the media. The movie was filmed simultaneously in Hindi, Tamil and English languages with different actors in different versions. I watched the Tamil version on Amazon Prime.

 The day we are introduced to Nambi Narayanan and his family is the darkest day of their lives. Nambi and the Narayanan family head out to their respective works, completely unaware of the trouble brewing around them, only to find that the family’s name has been dragged through the soil by the allegations against Nambi. They are scorned by their own relatives, shouted at by random passersby and even physically abused while Nambi is forcibly taken into custody like a criminal.

In custody, Nambi is given three-degree to make him confess to all the allegations against him. But the determined Nambi stays put despite the excruciating torture and humiliation. Nambi’s unrelenting passion for his work and his nation is the entire theme of the film which uses different timelines to tell his story.

The timeline of Rocketry spans from 1969 when Nambi is accepted as a graduate student in Princeton University to 2019, when he receives his Padma Bhushan.

We see Nambi transition from a young, carefree student with the ability to play around with words and make people instantly like him, turn into a battered and bruised man, wearied by the conspiracies against him. But he never tires and never loses hope. That is how Nambi is able to exonerate himself, and go on to develop the Vikas rocket engine and also help India with its first successful Mars mission.

Although Rocketry is a biographical film meant to tell the audience about the heroics of Nambi Narayanan, it does not turn him into a superhero. Nambi—highly talented, quick-witted and passionate—is as human as the rest of us. R. Madhavan excels in portraying the real life hero on screen with utmost conviction and honesty.

The film’s script throws around a lot of science and tech, which would probably make a lot of sense to astronomy geeks, but is not overwhelming for the normal audience as well. This is what I love about R. Madhavan’s filmmaking. He does not overdo anything as an actor or a director. In fact, this debut director has the maturity of someone seasoned at directing films for decades.

Rocketry’s runtime of 2 hrs 37mins feels deserving of Nambi’s story. The cast and crew sync with the Nambi’s story and each takes upon themselves the onus of telling it to the world. The film also features cameo appearances in an important role by Shahrukh Khan (Hindi and English) and Suriya (Tamil) which shows the support the medium-budget film got from the Indian film industries.

Who should watch it?

Even for those not very interested in science and history, Rocketry is a serious drama that can be enjoyed by anyone who loves a good film. Also as Amazon Prime is stingy with its new releases, Rocketry is probably the best new film there is to watch on the OTT platform right now.

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Biographical drama

Director: R. Madhavan

Actor: R. Madhavan, Suriya

Run time: 2hrs 37 mins

Do you guys remember the Luxembourgish series ‘Capitani’ I reviewed back in March 2021? The second part has just been released on Netflix. I’d planned on reviewing it this week and watched the whole series just to find out that it had gotten a bit too slow and predictable. So I decided not to. 

Then I found that there’s another new sports drama from India on Netflix. I think we’ve watched one too many Indian sports dramas in the past few months but this one mixes magic with sports and love, hence the name ‘Jaadugar’ (‘Magician’). 

Written by Biswapati Sarkar of The Viral Fever (TVF) fame and directed by Sameer Saxena, ‘Jaadugar’ features Jitendra Kumar in the lead role as Meenu Narang, a small-town magician. Now Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh is no ordinary town. In this football-crazy place people from different colonies compete in an annual tournament to win the most coveted Dhabolkar trophy. 

Even though Meenu comes from a footballing family he is probably the least athletic person in town, with a deep disinterest for the global game. Unfortunately, he lives with his uncle Pradeep Narang (Javed Jaffrey) after his parents die in an accident. Pradeep is the passionate coach of a local football team from Adarash Nagar colony, ironically called the ‘Sikandars’. The team has not won a single match in years, and in the last tournament the only time they scored was in their own net. 

In order to make it big as a magician and avoid football, Meenu meets and falls desperately in love with Disha Chhabra (Arushi Sharma). Now Disha turns out to be the only daughter of magician Chhabra (Manoj Joshi), Meenu’s inspiration and mentor. He now has to impress both the daughter and her father to be able to marry Disha. And long story short, father Chhabra puts up a condition that he will only agree to their marriage if Meenu’s team reaches the Dhabolkar trophy’s finals. How Meenu uses his magic and charms to try and take his team of misfits into the finals is what makes up the rest of the film. 

Like most of TVF’s past productions, ‘Jaadugar’ is grounded and touches the roots of its setting. Even with the concept of magic embedded in its storyline, the film does not appear surreal. It keeps proceedings realistic, besides a few necessary scenes where a bit of gimmick is forgivable and even necessary. Biswapati Sarkar (look him up, please) is the true magician behind the film. Even in a lighthearted coming-of-age film, Sarkar manages to plant words of wisdom while not making life lessons overbearing for the audience. The writer, along with director Saxena, have also managed to capture the essence of a small town in Madhya Pradesh and the lives of the people there. 

Even more popular as Sachib ji in the ‘Panchayat’ series, actor Jitendra Kumar punches the right weight in this film too. His strength is that he can easily blend into any given situation. 

Although most of the cast puts up a convincing performance, the name Javed Jaffrey deserves a special mention because of the actor’s versatility. In the industry for almost two decades, actor Jaffrey always delivers. In ‘Jaadugar’, he is a former footballer, a passionate coach and a loving uncle. The actor adds both comic relief and serious intensity whenever required. He even gives himself a subtle speech impairment which is not immediately noticed but adds color to the character. 

My only qualm is with the film’s length: 2hrs 47mins! As I could not chop off unimportant parts and disposable tropes, the film gets tiresome at times. The mind starts wandering because of the loose ends in the screenplay, editing and direction. 

Who should watch it? 

Despite its length and production that could be called a bit too organic, ‘Jaadugar’ is a good watch. People who have watched TVF productions or anything the team has ventured beyond TVF will most definitely enjoy the film. Even otherwise, ‘Jaadugar’ is a fun movie on Netflix for a lazy session when you don’t have to use too much of your brain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7yFiUio0u0 

On Netflix 

Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Sports drama

Director: Sameer Saxena

Actors: Jitendra Kumar, Arushi Sharma, Javed Jaffrey 

Run time: 2hrs 47mins

I didn’t really want to review another Akshay Kumar movie anytime soon but Amazon Prime seems to be very stingy with its new releases and did not give me a lot of options this week. Also, I cannot relate much with African (Nollywood) films and I don’t know why they are being released in hordes in Prime. 

So ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ it is. This historical period piece stars Kumar as the epic Indian king Prithviraj Chauhan of the Chahamana dynasty. The movie begins with a scene in Gazni, Afghanistan in 1192 CE where a wounded and blinded Prithviraj fights soldiers in horses and grapples with half-a-dozen lions while poet Chand Bardai (Sonu Sood) sings his praises aloud. 

From the very first scene, the audience understands that the film is a highly fictional narrative to glorify the late king Prithviraj, the aging actor Kumar, and this one religion which is growing vehemently violent in our neighboring country. 

Either that or the whole filmmaking team is going through fauxtalgia. (Look it up. It’s a legit word). Anyways, Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi writes and directs this movie that is based on an epic poem titled ‘Prtihiraj Rasso’ by Chand Bardai. To give it a little context, Dwivedi is the ‘Chanakya’ from the eponymous series ‘Chanakya’ which was pretty popular back in the 90s. Among his other creative works, the movie ‘Pinjar’ (2003) is also critically acclaimed. 

Now what forced Dwivedi to undertake such a blatant commercialization of a history piece is the question. If you’ve watched his Chanakya or Pinjar or even the not so famous ‘Zed Plus’, you’ll have a different opinion of him. But in Samrat Prithviraj, Dwivedi fails as a writer and director. He deviates from honest storytelling to paint a larger-than-life picture of the king. But Dwivedi lacks the guile and grandeur of Sanjay Leela Bhanshali to pull off the mega-pageantry. 

As expected of a glorification project, historical inaccuracies malign the whole plot. Prithviraj may have been the bravest of the brave and the strongest of the strong but if you tell me he fought seven full-grown lions with spears and killed them all, that too when he was captured, blinded and parched, I am not going to take any of it. 

King Prithviraj Chauhan is believed to have died at the age of around 25-26. Actor Akshay Kumar is 54. Former Miss World Manushi Chillar who plays his love interest Sanyogita is 25. The couple look like father and daughter in some scenes and seriously, that is how it should be now for our aging actors who are still banking on their past glory. 

Period pieces are always difficult to pull off. Besides the narration there are many things to consider, like costumes, makeup, sets, dialogues and more. Samrat Prithviraj is a failure on all fronts. The production, even though backed up by the Yash Raj Films banner, is immature. The casting is also a disaster. 

Otherwise, who in their right mind would cast muscleman Sonu Sood as a poet? No offense to the actor but his career is a long list of macho roles. But he is not a poet. Not even a warrior poet. He looks uncomfortable and out of place in a role that is the film’s second most important. And I am not even going to comment on Akshay Kumar’s acting because he is too old at least by a decade to take up a role like this.

The rest of the cast, although famous and experienced, is also below par. It is probably the shoddy writing and Kumar’s over-the-top presence that throw them into shadow. Sanjay Dutt, who is given an atrocious role, could have been replaced with a newcomer and the balance spent on better CGI. 

Yes, the CGI is that bad too. So is the background score. So is the music. And the film is too long.  

Who should watch it? 

Unfortunately, this is another on my ‘no one’ list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33-CQdPHyjw 

One star 

Genre: Drama/history

Actors: Akshay Kumar, Sonu Sood, Manushi Chillar

Director: Chandraprakash Dwivedi

Run time: 2hrs 15mins

India’s Northeast, comprising eight states, covers almost eight percent of the country’s land area. But as these states share borders with Tibet, Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal and the region’s indigenous people do not fit typical ‘Indian standards,’ they feel alienated in their own country. 

As close neighbors of India, we have probably witnessed this racial discrimination against Northeast Indians in real life, and recently in the news and media as well. 

Writer/director Anubhav Sinha yet again takes pressing social issues to mainstream Bollywood with his latest film “Anek”—which shows life, conflict and violence in Northeast India, albeit from an outsider’s viewpoint. 

Aman (Ayushmann Khurrana) is an undercover agent who goes by the alias Joshua. He is in the Northeast in a covert operation to bring Tiger Sangha (Loitongbam Dorendra), the top rebel leader of the region, to the negotiation table. 

The problem for Aman and his boss Abrar Butt (Manoj Pahwa) is that there is another rebel group called Johnson that has been winning over people. Not coincidentally though, Aman initially planted Johnson in the region to challenge Tiger’s authority. 

Now a whole different group is using the name and Aman has no idea who is leading it. There follows a series of power-play and politics that shed light into the actual situation in the Northeast. 

To blend in with the locals and help his espionage, Aman befriends Adio (Andrea Kevichusa), the daughter of a school teacher (Mipham Otsal) and an aspiring boxer who wants to represent India. Her father is against her becoming an Indian sportsperson and is himself involved with an underground rebel group. 

Aman’s relationship with Adio also complicates the movie’s plot. But those complications are only a small part of the conflicts the film highlights. A powerful rebel leader who has been fighting for secession for decades suddenly finds himself losing power. A skillful and deserving boxer is stripped off an opportunity to represent her country as “she doesn’t look like an Indian.” A mother struggles to save her teenage son from joining a rebel group. A teenager is forced by circumstances to join a rebel group. A ruthless agent suddenly starts having feelings for the people he has to betray. 

There are multiple conflicts and complications in the film but all of them point to one major problem—the alienation of people based on their looks and culture. Unlike Bollywood mainstreams in the past, the filmmakers of Anek do not decide on what is right or wrong. They just lay out a series of hypothetical situations and let the audience decide for themselves. 

With hard-hitting dialogues based more on ground reality and less on patriotic jingoism, Anek explores gray areas in politics and bureaucracy. Yes, it takes an outsider to the Northeast and puts him in a powerful position. But I don’t believe Aman’s character in the film has the traits of a savior. He too finds himself lost. Of course there are parts where the filmmakers have tried to appease the larger Indian audience with popular cinematic tropes, but wherever possible they have toned down the heroism to highlight the underlying issues. 

Ayushmann Khurrana in the lead role is average. Had it not been for the film’s strong script and storyline, the experienced actor would have been a misfit. If “trying too hard” could be used to describe an actor, I think Khurrana would fit it perfectly. As for Manoj Pahwah and the rest of the Bollywood cast, they put on a good show befitting the script. 

The Northeastern actors, mostly new to me, just blend in with the film’s storyline. There is nothing striking about them but none of them looks out of place either. I think this is what acting is all about. Not overpowering your co-actors but still getting noticed.  

Who should watch it?

Although Anek is categorized as an action-thriller, it’s more of a drama. But it is intense. And people who love watching a combination of good writing, direction and acting will definitely enjoy Anek. 

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Action/drama

Actors: Ayushmann Khurrana, Andrea Kevichusa

Director: Anubhav Sinha

Run time: 2hrs 27mins

https://youtu.be/Vhldo272vO8

An immensely talented but cocky passenger aircraft pilot who likes to live it up takes on his next flight in a hungover state after partying the night before. Still, everything is going smoothly for him until the landing nears. The weather at the destination airport is stormy and he has to reroute. There are a few major hiccups and altercations while landing at the alternate destination but the skillful pilot manages to avert a disaster and make a safe landing.  

Following the incident, the media and the people at large hail him as a hero. He is endlessly thanked for saving countless lives. But soon, an inquiry is started against his ‘possible negligence’ that day. The hero is pushed into a gray area with the law, and many of his decisions come under question. 

Although the Indian thriller “Runway 34” claims to be inspired by a real life incident from 2015, the plot is uncannily similar to Denzel Washington’s 2012 American drama “Flight” which also claims to have been loosely inspired by a similar incident in the US. Too many similarities and coincidences here. 

Available on Amazon Prime, Runway 34 is actor Ajay Devgn’s yet another attempt at direction. Also the film’s producer, Devgn plays the pilot in question—Captain Vikrant Khanna—who is grilled to the bone by Narayan Vedant (Amitabh Bachchan), head of a government investigative body. 

This is Devgn’s third attempt at direction and first display of maturity as a director. Also, as Devgn does not pair with director/producer Rohit Shetty this time, he does not get to fly motorbikes and cars. Instead, he flies a passenger airplane like a normal pilot in a movie that possibly has the most detailed cockpit scenes in the history of Indian cinema. 

As an actor, Devgn is mostly known as a Bollywood action star but he has time and again proved his mettle in hard-hitting drama and thrillers (‘Omkara’, ‘Drishyam’). In Runway 34, he yet again delivers an impactful performance, further strengthening his position as a versatile actor. There is an earnestness about him as Captain Khanna; his performance is powerful yet not overbearing. 

The same set of compliments can be copy-pasted for the veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan who plays the shrewd investigator Narayan Vedant. But it is also not new for the legendary actor to completely own his role.

As a director, Devgn chooses to be realistic in Runway 34. From the very beginning, one can see that the actor-turned-director whose highest grossing films are usually loud and brash means serious business in this one. He seems to understand the changing taste of his audience, especially in OTT platforms.

Runway 34 does not completely glorify a ‘hero’ figure; the protagonist comes with his share of virtues and vices. The film also at all times maintains its proximity to reality and does not instill over-the-top cinematic tropes. 

Unfortunately, a film with such powerful acting and scrupulous filmmaking did not do well in Indian cinemas. Perhaps most Indian audiences are still not mature enough to enjoy nuanced movies. 

Who should watch it? 

If you expect Ajay Devgn to jump out of a flying plane mid-air and stop the impending crash, no, this is not that kind of film. Runway 34 is a serious portrayal of something that reportedly happened in real life. So it keeps the storytelling clean and simple yet also always captivating. For those interested in high intensity thrillers, it could be a good watch.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Genre: Drama/thriller

Actors: Ajay Devgn, Amitabh Bachchan, Rakul Preet Singh

Director: Ajay Devgn

Run time: 2hrs 25mins

https://youtu.be/0zJ7rfxUv3I 

I distinctly remember watching Bhool Bhulaiyaa back in 2007. I had not watched the movie’s trailer. Watching trailers on YouTube was not really a thing back then. I remember thinking it was an out-and-out comedy when I went to the cinema hall and then getting scared out of my wits when the dreaded Manjulika appeared on-screen. Back then, Bhool Bhulaiyaa was a fantastic movie. It was funny and scary at the same time. 

Fifteen years later, we now get to watch a standalone sequel called ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’, which is neither funny nor scary. It’s just another Bollywood attempt to capitalize on a successful franchise. Surprisingly, it has done really well at the box office. But like we’ve talked about so many times before in this space, high gross does not necessarily translate to high quality. 

Kartik Aaryan plays Ruhaan Randhawa, a recently orphaned heir who travels wantonly around India as he can afford the lifestyle. On one of his expeditions in Himachal Pradesh, he meets Reet (Kiara Advani), a medical student who plans to go back to her hometown Bhawanigarh, Rajasthan, to get married. 

Befriending each other during the trip, the two take a brief detour, making them miss their bus back home. The said bus plunges down a gorge though, killing everyone abroad. Ruhaan and Reet are saved, but on finding out that her sister wants to marry her would-be groom, Reet decides to let her family believe that she is dead. She then takes Ruhaan to hide for a few days in the family’s old abandoned mansion at Bhawanigarh.

That’s where Manjulika lives! The Manjulika in BB2 is different from the first, with a strong agenda against her twin Anjulika, Reet’s sister-in-law. She has been locked up in a room in the mansion for over 15 years with no one daring to even go near it. Ruhaan and Reet’s clear plan of getting her younger sister hitched gets Manjulika out of her confinement, angrier and fiercer than before. 

Tabu plays the twins Manjulika and Anjulika in this horror-comedy directed by Anees Bazmee. Now we all know Tabu’s track record as a powerful actor, belting out one after another strong performance in Bollywood. She is no less in BB2 as she takes the center stage as the evil Manjulika who wants to destroy everything in her path to vengeance. Even as the homely Anjulika, who is the main target of the wrathful spirit, Tabu is convincing enough. But the problem with BB2 is that the writing, direction and familiarity of Tabu as an actor fail to establish her as a scary ghost.

Vidya Balan, who played Majulika back in 2007, was a relative newcomer in Bollywood. So when she transformed into a ghost, the effect was surprising and horrifying. Unfortunately for Tabu, her almost three-decade-long career in the film industry has given her too much exposure to be taken seriously as an evil spirit in a film like BB2 which focuses more on industry gimmicks than serious writing and production. 

Similarly, Bhool Bhulaiyaa was made when Akshay Kumar’s career as a comedian was peaking. And so was Rajpal Yadav’s. Karthik Aaryan replaces Kumar in the lead but he cannot match the style, energy and charisma of his senior. The newcomer, apparently a heartthrob amongst young women, is yet to find his mojo in Bollywood. 

The sadder part is Rajpal Yadav losing his charm. He revives his role as Chhote Pandit in the film but the difference of 15 years seems to have taken a toll on the actor’s vivacity. Although BB2 can be called a multi-starrer with the number of famous supporting actors it features, I mention Yadav because he was one of the most memorable characters in the first edition. It is only natural for the audience to expect more from him in this one. 

Who should watch it?

Talking about expectations, maybe BB2’s nomenclature just burdened it with expectation. Maybe if it had taken some other name, a lot of people, including this reviewer, would not have expected much and wasted time on it. Still, BB2’s box office collections suggest this is a worth-a-try movie on Netflix. People who like slapstick comedy and light horror could still enjoy it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2KRKxAb2ek 

Rating: 2.5 stars

Genre: Comedy, drama

Actors: Karthik Aaryan, Kiara Advani, Tabu

Director: Anees Bazmee

Run time: 2hrs 25mins

In his latest movie “Jayeshbhai Jordaar,” actor Ranveer Singh plays the titular Jayesh Patel—a happy-go-lucky man who lives in a village called Pravingadh, Gujarat, with his pregnant wife Mudra (Shalini Pandey) and daughter Siddhi (Jia Vaidhya). His family has been in power in the village for generations. 

When his father Prutvish (Boman Irani) faces a tough competition in the village sarpanch election, he puts Mudra as a front—and she wins. But she neither gets to exercise her power nor to attend any of the public hearings. For all intents and purposes, her father-in-law is still the village head. 

This is just the beginning of the film, giving you a glimpse of what is to come. Pravingadh is a village riddled with superstition and patriarchy. Jayesh’s family is no exception. In fact, his father is a strong proponent of patriarchy; he forbids women from using bathing soaps as, apparently, their fragrance draws unwanted male attention. Jayesh and his mother Jasodha (Ratna Shah Pathak) are bystanders and sometimes unwillingly complicit in Prutvish’s atrocities. Mudra has no say in the house. 

Jayesh’s parents are unhappy with their daughter-in-law as she has not been able to give him a son—an heir to continue the Patel family lineage. His eldest daughter is nine, and since his wife Mudra has had six abortions as all those fetuses tuned out to be female. 

This time, Jayesh’s parents are confident it is a male. But as Mudra gets into the last stage of pregnancy, Jayesh finds out that she has a daughter. Fearing for the life of both mother and the unborn daughter, Jayesh devises an escape from the village. His ordeal while running away with the pregnant Mudra and Siddhi, while his powerful father and his clan are in hot pursuit, makes up for the story of Jayeshbhai Jordaar.

But this is still a side story. Directed by Divyang Thakkar, Jayeshbhai Jordaar is an Indian comedy-drama film that has so many incidents that deserve to become stand-alone stories of their own. The film exposes a part of India (and South Asia by extension) that is still reeling under ancient cultures and malpractices. 

In their patriarchal world, Suyesh is a misfit: a feminist who believes in equal rights. He cannot straight up rebel against his father but he makes every attempt to protect his wife and daughter in secret. He locks his bedroom door and pretends to hit Mudra because his parents want him to but he does not actually lay a finger on her. He steals bathing soap from his mother’s safe because Mudra loves the smell. 

Actor Ranveer Singh, known for his trailblazing fashion and style, shuns all his ornamentation to play an ordinary Gujarati villager in the film. Jayeshbhai is Bollywood’s take on Indian social issues and Singh shows a commitment to the cause through his performance. This is something Akshay Kumar did in the past before he lost his mojo. I just think Ranveer Singh does it better and with more conviction. 

Actors Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah naturally assume their positions like the class act they are. As the villain, Irani gets a stronger role and performs it with natural ease. A new but popular name in South Indian cinema, Shalini Pandey playing Mudra, a daughter-in-law in a strict Gujrati household, does not get many opportunities to shine but this does not stop her from showcasing her skills whenever she is on screen. 

The young Jia Vaidya as Jayesh’s daughter Siddhi is the show-stealer, though. Despite living in a world of voiceless women, Siddhi is smart, sassy and vocal. She is one who gives her father the name of ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaaar’. Vaidya’s portrayal of Siddhi is a treat to watch.  

Who should watch it?

Jayeshbhai Jordaar is a PG drama that can be enjoyed by the whole family. It is not only entertaining but also educational. Still, it is a Bollywood adaptation, so you can expect some over-the-top sequences and improbable situations. There are moments when you feel the filmmakers could have done better. But those are few and far between and definitely not a deal-breaker. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fppJtxJ7RWY 

Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Comedy, drama

Actors: Ranveer Singh, Shailini Pandey, Boman Irani

Director: Divyang Thakkar

Run time: 2hrs 1min