Jail

*ing : Neil Mukesh, Manoj Bajpai, Mughda Godse
Directed by : Madhur Bhandarkar

Movies are rated by the way they make the audience feel about the characters' situations. In the case of Jail, it is about a man wronged and put into prison for a crime he did not commit. Parag Dixit played by Neil Nitin Mukesh is jailed for transporting drugs. The movie charts his life during his span in jail, his struggles to maintain sanity, his deteriorating relationship with inmates, girlfriend, mother etc.

Interesting ? Not quite. The problem with Jail is that it does not hit us hard enough. All problems seem to be manufactured and touched upon with a superficial hand. The characters that share the cell with Parag are so one-dimensional in nature, one feels that they are better kept behind those four walls. Not one of them with the exception of Manoj Bajpai makes an impact. The court scenes seem too simple and childish at times. I could myself make a case of defence and highlight all points that the qualified lawyer fails to see.

The second half of the movie partly redeems itself as it presents engaging back stories and there is a clever twist to keep us interested. Without giving away the ending, we as humans also ultimately feel naturally and wait to see if the convicted man is let off. Being from the Bhandarkar stable a happy ending is never guaranteed.

Bhandarkar, usually a very competent director, fails to live upto expectation this time. Somehow everything is just being shoved into our face with little or no skill. Unlike Page 3 and Corporate, where there was perspective to judge people for their actions, here is not the case where people just state what they are like with no fathomable reason. The director is not able to create an engaging drama.

Of the performances , Neil Mukesh is hardly an actor who makes us grieve about his losses. He is either too loud or just too wooden. Godse and Navni Parihar are adequate. Arya Babbar is average. All other actors too seem to be just going through the motions.

Watch it if you must if only for Manoj Bajpai's dignified performance. It stands out in what is otherwise a highly tepid drama.

Rating : 2/5

During one of my infrequent visits to the gym, (the consequences of which I am facing now with a few extra pounds in random parts of my anatomy ), I once noticed that someone had actually spilled some liquid on to the treadmill belt. Now everytime the belt completed its carousel motion, the stain innocently appeared displaying a dissimilar shape from its previous splattering pattern. That is the a similar feeling I got when watching Gowariker's What's your Rashee.

Due to some family problems, Harman has to get married immediately. How does he start he thinks? His uncle has listed a few 100 candidates. But he relents and finally decides to meet one girl from each zodiac sign. And so he meets 12 Priyanka Chopras. The resemblance in looks is excused in a silly way but is still acceptable. But just as the treadmill stain, this beauty((Priyanka is more good-looking than the stain though) just changes attire and appears with no appreciable difference in persona. And everytime Harman meets a new girl, they sing, dance and say goodbye to each other. Multiply this sequence by 12 and you get an idea how tedious this film can get.

Three errors here.. firstly Gowariker is very stiff in his writing. After making movies like Lagaan, Swades and Jodha Akbar it is understandable. But due to this dogged mantra of not going the lowbrow way or atleast some part of it has not provided him with the space to creatively manoeuvre and come up with a suave urban comedy . I think this movie would have worked wonders if it was made into a screwball corny comic venture.

Secondly, what was the point of seeing the zodiac inspired girls? The film makes no attempt in anyway at explaining what is the inherent demeanor of say a Libra, Cancer, Virgo girl etc so we might anticipate what is in store. Nothing, zilch. If the groom met 12 different girls from 12 different states of India, fair enough we have some idea but with the rashees, are we supposed to remove our horoscope charts and get lost in cosmic planetary codswallop. Extremely sketchy characterization inevitably results from this overlooked fact.

And thirdly this is a huge case of miscasting. By common consensus, even among his own family members, Harman Baweja is a man who can at most, pull out three facial expressions from his limited reservoir of acting. He is completely at sea as the man who is eager to see a new girl everyday. Yes he can dance, but as my Dean would say while comparing my enthusiasm for cricket with my almost non-existent penchant for studies - "This is the side dish, where is the main dish?"

What saves this movie from being an unmitigated disaster is Priyanka Chopra's sincere efforts. She falters horribly in comic situations but acts maturely in a few other challenging ones and looks kinky and enticing in the whole Shu Chhe Shu Chhe sequence. There are 13 songs. Some of them are very very good but only play on our patience in this never-ending saga.