Jazbaa: Not too much of Jazbaat…. but only style

Sanjay Gupta, the name is synonym of movies which are remake of Hollywood and loads of style with a larger than life canvas but less of substance. The two movies which had both style and substance were “Kaante” (2002) & “Zinda” (2006)….

Sanjay Gupta is back with a remake of a Korean movie “Seven Days” for Aishwarya Rai’s comeback vehicle. Aishwaraya is in all the frames of the movie and not for a moment do you forget that this is Ash’s comeback movie. The plot tells the story of Anuradha Verma (Aishwarya Rai) a famous criminal lawyer who has never lost a case and a single mother of a daughter Sanaya (Child actor Sara Arjun). Things take an unexpected turn when her daughter is kidnapped and the kidnapper asks for an unusual ransom by asking Anuradha to fight for the criminal Miyaaz Shaikh (Chandan Roy Sanyal) who has been convicted of rape and murder of a girl Sia and set him free. Is Anuradha able to fulfill the ransom asked and whether she gets back her daughter is what the movie is all about….

The story inspired by the Korean movie, has a screenplay written by Sanjay Gupta himself and Robin Bhatt. On the onset the biggest flaw of the script is its pace which is inconsistent for a thriller, as it lacks edge of the seat moments. Though the screenplay has a lot of twists and turns but none make a mark, except the one in the climax. Another flaw of the screenplay is its loopholes which are disaster for a thriller, like the movie never really concludes as to how the girl was really murdered, or how the kidnappers kept a watch on Anuradha Verma, many such loose ends are kept unresolved. The one thing which could have been the biggest highlight of the movie could have been the court scenes, but the weak writing does not create any impact. Overall the script falters and the concept which could have been a good thriller is wasted.

Though I must say Kamlesh Pandey’s dialogues saves the day to some extent, especially for Yohan’s  (Irrfan Khan) character for which Kamlesh gives Seeti Mar dialogues…

I must say Sanjay Gupta managed to get a crackling cast for the movie and almost everybody did a good job except for the leading lady Aishwarya Rai. Aishwarya’s portrayal of Anuradha Verma is quite inconsistent. On one side Aishwarya had to play a tough lawyer and on the other side she had to play a loving mother, must say an author backed role, but while playing the tough lawyer she comes out as too stiff and for showing the loving mother side she is too melodramatic, hence she completely fails to strike a balance. Irrfan Khan as Inspector Yohan gives a crackling performance in style, what with all the seeti maar dialogues are given to him, but he does complete justice to his new avatar of a typical Bollywood hero. Shabana Azmi as Professor Garima Chaoudhary, the victim’s mother as usual gives a strong performance which was expected from her character. Jackie Shroff as the politician is wasted and he does not have much to do. Other actors like Atul Kulkarni, Chandan Roy Sanyal & Sidharth Kapoor are wasted in small roles which are not too well defined….

One thing which stands out in every Sanjay Gupta movie is the stylized camera work, and even in “Jazbaa” he does not disappoint us, Sameer Arya’s stylized camera work with a green hue captures Mumbai as never before, really a splendid job by Sameer Arya…

Another highlight of any Sanjay Gupta movie is its music, though “Jazbaa” did not have too much of scope for song and dance, but somehow Sanjay created a few brief moments in the movie and the most impressive being the ghazal “Jane tere Shehar ka”…..but the rest just do not gel with the narration…

Sanjay Gupta does not disappoint us on the style quotient, but as in most of the Sanjay Gupta movies style overtakes the content, the same can be said about “Jazbaa”. Though he is successful in extracting some good performances by the support cast and Irrfan Khan but he fails miserably in extracting a crackling performance by the leading lady Aishwarya Rai. Sanjay also fails to create the chemistry between Aishwarya & Irrfan, and the pairing just comes out as too “Thanda”…..

“Jazbaa” is an opportunity lost by Sanjay Gupta and definitely a weak come back movie for Aishwarya….I will go with Two & a Half Stars….

Movie Rating: (2.5 / 5)