REVIEW 718: JABARIYA JODI

Release date:	August 9, 2019
Director:	Prashant Singh
Cast: Language:	Parineeti Chopra, Sidharth Malhotra, Jaaved Jaaferi, Sheeba Chadha, Aparshakti Khurana, Sanjay Mishra, Neeraj Sood, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Sharad Kapoor Hindi

The road to cinematic hell is paved with concepts that must have sounded good on paper. A handsome young man who abducts grooms for a living falls in love with an irrepressible young woman. Those who know Bihar well will be familiar with Abhay Singh's trade: his clients are the families of unmarried women who cannot afford the dowry being demanded by potential grooms, and therefore get eligible men kidnapped and forcibly married to their daughters. Babli Yadav's father is anxious to see her married, but her reputation for wildness has ruined her prospects. She has clarity about her feelings for Abhay but he is all mixed up in the head because of his parents' failed marriage.

This was material that an efficient, talented team may possibly have expanded into something worthwhile. Instead, writer Sanjeev K. Jha's imagination appears to have gone on vacation after a while and director Prashant Singh has such a weak hold on the reins that what we get in Jabariya Jodi are a series of contrived twists and turns trying hard to be surprising, a bunch of characters with zero depth, and a lead couple whose convoluted journey to their fate even they seem disinterested in.

Others who lost interest in the project while it was on include the half dozen or so musicians involved who have churned out the most generic soundtrack you could imagine. Macchardani – composed by Vishal Mishra, with lyrics by Raj Shekhar, sung by Mishra and Jyotica Tangri – is the only song worth remembering.

If you really want to know about the business of groom-napping in Bihar, read news reports. Jabariya Jodi is too boring and shallow to be taken seriously as a source of information.

Parineeti Chopra and Sidharth Malhotra play Babli and Abhay, who seem to forget their Bihari accents at some point. Can’t blame them. Maybe they were distracted by the really bad lines trying to sound smart scattered throughout the film. I was distracted too, but I think there was one assigned to his Daddy, a goonda and aspiring politician played by Jaaved Jaaferi, which went something like this: Tum bahu (daughter in law) ka soch rahey hai, hum bahumat (electoral majority) ka soch rahey hai.

At first it is not all bad. Jabariya Jodi has its moments of humour early on. And how can one not enjoy just gazing at the sinfully handsome Sidharth Malhotra? But after Abhay abducts a lot of people, then Babli abducts him, then Abhay abducts her, and they all head off on a road to nowhere (there are no spoilers here, the trailer has revealed all this already) it was a struggle to stay awake.

There are some scenes aspiring to be intellectual and emotionally profound along the way, scenes in which he discusses his fear that he may turn out to be a jerk like his father and is therefore afraid to hook up with a woman he genuinely loves. Maybe there was something there worth exploring, but this team is clearly not equipped for the job.

Fine supporting artistes like Sheeba Chadha, Aparshakti Khurana, Sanjay Mishra and Chandan Roy Sanyal are criminally frittered away in Jabariya Jodi. As for the leads, it is hard not to feel sad about their wasted potential.

Parineeti Chopra had shown great spark in her debut film Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl (2011), but has since then seemed more invested in publicising her impressive weight loss than picking solid scripts. There is only so far that your bright diamond-like eyes can take you, Ms.

Malhotra deserves better but either does not have the right instincts for scripts or is just not getting good offers. Either way, the hottie from Student of the Year and Ek Villain, he whose eyes can by turns be pools of pain, longing and mischief, he who gave so much to the lovely Kapoor & Sons and Ittefaq, is too good for the bland fare that has dominated his filmography since 2012. Jabariya Jodi makes the worst of his films so far look worthy of National Awards though. For one, it has the depth of a teaspoon. More important, it is dull dull dull.

Rating (out of five stars): 1/2

CBFC Rating (India):	UA (bookmyshow)
Running time:	144 minutes (bookmyshow)

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/bollywood/jabariya-jodi-movie-review-sidharth-malhotra-is-too-hot-and-happening-for-such-bland-fare-7135641.html

Visuals courtesy: Spice PR

REVIEW 629: STREE

Release date:	August 31, 2018
Director:	Amar Kaushik
Cast: Language:	Raj Kummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee, Pankaj Tripathi, Atul Srivastava Hindi

In the town of Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh, there is a popular myth about a female ghost known as Stree who haunts the community and abducts men, leaving nothing but their clothes behind. She is not as rigid as you might think though – if you write “Oh Stree kal aana (oh woman return tomorrow)” on the boundary wall of your home, she actually complies, and returns the next day, only to be confused once again by the persistent instruction.

This literate, obedient, stupid spook and the equally dimwitted townsfolk are the subject of director Amar Kaushik’s Stree written by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK (credited as Raj and DK) who have so far directed the brilliant yet unassuming, highly under-recognised Shor In The City (2011) and the wacko zombie comedy Go Goa Gone (2013) with Saif Ali Khan, among other films. If you have seen Shor and GGG you might understand why and how the crazy idea for Stree might have come to Raj and DK. These gentlemen are clearly not interested in the straight and wide path. Ergo: when they do horror, don’t go expecting Bhoot. So if GGG was nutty and over the top, with Stree they have managed to be nutty, hilarious, ridiculous, scary to the point of being terrifying in places, feminist, secular and political in various ways, wistful, and just all-round rollicking fun. Did I say hilarious? Ya well, let me say it again.

Kaushik has scored big with the writing served to him, and just as well with the casting, which is as close to perfection as it can get. Raj Kummar Rao is outstanding as Vicky, the young tailor who scoffs at his community’s belief in paranormal mumbo jumbo until he becomes convinced that he is Stree’s object of desire. The man we see here seems born to do comedy. I had to pinch my arm to remind myself that he is the same actor who played the lead in Shahid, Citylights and Newton. If Rao is not one of Indian cinema’s most versatile talents, then New Delhi is the capital of France. His crackling dialogue delivery is matched moment for moment by Aparshakti Khurana and Abhishek Banerjee’s career-making performances as his cowardly buddies, and Pankaj Tripathi’s genius in his role as the local know-it-all. While these four keep the fire in the film blazing with their flawless comic timing, Shraddha Kapoor is suitably intimidatingly nice, sweet and intriguing as the woman they feel harbours a secret.

While I spent much of Stree giggling uncontrollably, there were moments when I thought the proceedings on screen would give me a heart attack. That is an unusual combination to achieve, and Kaushik deserves all kudos for it. The primary reason why Stree is so effective though is that it does not caricature the people of Chanderi – they are as real and foolish and prejudiced and good as most human beings are, and could well be you or me with less sophistication. One twist in the film’s closing moments feels superfluous and one conversation during which a significant point is being made feels a tad bit self-conscious about its messaging, but so much that is said and done in Stree hits the nail on the head and smashes it right through the wood, that I don’t feel inclined to be finnicky here. That said, a film that mocks gender bias and ridicules misogyny so pointedly could have done without the blatant objectification of a woman (with no equivalent objectification of a man) in the kind of song and dance routine that Bollywood calls “item number”. Hopefully Messrs Raj, Krish and Kaushik will think about that when they make their next film together, because it is the only bow to convention in this otherwise outrightly unconventional film.

Stree is like a blind date that turns out well – a tryst with the unexpected filled with exciting surprises. It is a thought-provoking laughathon-cum-spookathon, and one of the most unusual Bollywood films of the year so far.

Rating (out of five stars): ***1/2

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	130 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/bollywood/stree-movie-review-raj-kummar-rao-co-are-a-hoot-shraddha-kapoor-is-nicely-intimidating-in-an-unusual-horror-flick-5083851.html

Poster courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stree_(2018_film)