Not all films encourage you to sit with your laptop in the
middle of night and write about them. Rarely does it happen and definitely not
with Hindi films but I had that rare moment last week, I saw Jagga Jasoos (JJ).
Sometimes I wonder what is the purpose of cinema, is it just
to entertain or make audience think or teach them something or to give them an experience
they can cherish. There cannot be one answer, it will differ, everyone have
their own reasons whatever it is but there is one basic condition, for those 120-150 minutes the film should make
you forget about everything . You should not think about the world outside that
dark room. If a movie succeeds in doing so, for me it has won the day no matter what
the genre or language is, that is the film I recommend to everyone. I have
this bad habit of making people watch or listen to anything which resonates with me. So that’s what I’m doing here.
Anurag Basu (AB) took around three years in making this film,
Ranbir Kapoor (RK) is producing it and he has dedicated it to his grandfather, the legendary (and my favorite) Raj Kapoor. The film gives him tribute saying
‘Gardish main sitarein rahengey sada’ from Mera Naam Joker (MNJ), one of the
most underrated films in Indian cinema. In
a way JJ and MNJ have a few trivial similarities, MNJ was a very expensive film
and a long one as well. I don’t know how many of you are aware but the film had
two intervals, it was Raj Kapoor’s magnum
opus, unfortunately it didn’t work, they said it was too ahead of its times. JJ
is a three hour long film with more than 27 songs, took way too much time to complete,
in a way it is Ranbir’s magnum opus. I just hope that it does not end up as MNJ
on box office. AB has made a film with heart, it has all the right elements in
perfect amount, and nothing has been overdone. It is a simple father son story
which kids can watch with their parents and have fun. In a country like ours
where everyone run behind the trends (you make one Wasseypur and there will be
a dozen films about the same place and the same people, someone made DDLJ 20
years back and people are still trying to tell the same story) it takes guts to write
and make a film like JJ.
AB has this natural ability to create moments which are inherently
funny which necessarily doesn’t come from the comic part of it but the innocence or naivety of his characters, he creates noise in silence. He loves international
cinema and this film too like Barfi has a lot of French feel to it (especially Amelie).
But then the references have not been used for the sake of it, the
nature of the story and characters are such that these references goes very
well with the narrative and nothing looks forced.
Ranbir and Sasawata Chatterjee (Bob Viswas
from Kahani) have given very fine performances. Pritam has done wonderful job, to create a
whole film with music is a task and it
has been done with perfection. There is one more hero in the film and that is
Ravi Verman, the cinematographer. The film has been captured beautifully and has
a dream like feel to it, the result of which is you actually become a part of Jagga’s
journey. The screenplay loses it's grip in the third act but then for me it is typical AB style, he focuses more on creating memorable moments then the
actual plot points or structure (it was same with Barfi in which after a
point you weren’t even sure what all things are going on), as long as audience
are with Jagga and having fun, little matters.
The film has its flaws; there are continuity breaks, there
is Katrina, there are a few ‘Bahubali Moments’ (the escape sequence on ostrich) but that’s the beauty of immersive
cinema you tend to overlook the mistakes and just enjoy the film.
In a lot of reviews I have read people are complaining about the length of the film or they
have questions about the plot whereas in the theaters kids were dancing with Jagga
and laughing with his father. Maybe sometimes we just need to loosen up a little
and be in the moment, children are so much better at this.
Please go watch JJ as films like these are not made very
often and the best part is it can be a trendsetter, I hope more films like these are made in future. And we won’t have to watch poorly animated Hanumans or
Krishnas in the name of children's films, just to make myself clear I don’t have
any issues with movies based on mythological characters but again they are not
done with conviction and that is my problem.
Jagga Jasoos is the winner here, give yourself a chance and experience the world of Jagga, you will not regret it.
