Movie: Jazbaa
Director: Sanjay Gupta
Cast: Aishwarya Rai, Irrfan Khan, Shabana Azmi, Atul Kulkarni, Jackie Shroff
Genre: Action- Thriller
Jazba is the much awaited comeback movie of Aishwarya Rai Bachhan. After a controversial exit from films due to her pregnancy, several speculations have been rife over the years regarding her comeback. Sanjay Gupta’s Jazba is a remake of a South Korean movie, Seven days. Infact Sanjay is quite known for his not so hit remakes. And we all know how remakes fare in Bollywood. So there you go, nothing new!
Anuradha Verma (Aishwarya Rai) is a well known criminal lawyer. She lives in Mumbai with her daughter Sanaya (Sara Arjun). Yuvaan (Irrfan Khan) is a corrupt police officer who is also Anuradha’s school friend. One day, Sanaya goes missing and Anuradha gets a call from the kidnapper with a weird demand- they want her to fight the case of a man who is on the death row. This man is convicted for the rape and brutal murder of a young girl. Will Anuradha fight against her morals to set free a rapist or will she lose her daughter in the process?
To begin with, I have no idea why this movie is titled as Jazba. The word Jazba implies Passion. And passion has nothing to do with the plotline; this is the story of an abduction and a murder case. So, whose passion are we exactly talking about here? No, idea! Moving on the movie is filled with contradictory scenes. For example, Anuradha is a criminal lawyer by profession; but once she wins the case, she tells the criminal that I pray that we never meet again. So my question is, by that logic, wont she will soon run out of cases?! Again, no idea! Another funny contradiction is that Yuvaan is a suspended police officer who is evading an arrest warrant. Yet, as and when needed you will see him heading a team of police officers on raid. The first half of the movie hardly makes any sense, it is sloppy, ridiculous and boring. Then we have the second half, in which there is a lot of ‘maa ki mamta’ talk, some meaningless action and a storyline which stopped making sense even before it began.
Aishwarya Rai Bacchhan’s acting is okay, nothing great. Shabana, Irrfan Khan and Atul Kulkarni are wasted in the movie. The only consolation is some (Note: some means very few) dialogues by Irrfan are entertaining and laughable. Music by Amjad-Nadeem is passable, nothing that will ring in your ears after the movie. Cinematography by Sameer Arya has some beautiful shots of Mumbai.
Well, I wonder what made Aishwaya chose this movie as her comeback vehicle. Her entry definitely did not make as much noise as her exit did. I was bored to death and if you want to spare yourself the same, relax at home. Cio!
MY verdict: **
