'Jigra' review: Alia's film is neither entertaining nor convincing
Vasan Bala's Jigra, led by Alia Bhatt and featuring a mostly convincing performance by Vedang Raina, had the potential to become a landmark prison-break film. However, as it turns out, the screenplay is largely an incoherent, unentertaining, wayward mess that keeps moving in circles with next to no progression. Good acting and stellar cinematography aside, Jigra fails to break any new ground.
The story of a sister's fierce fight for her brother
Jigra follows orphan siblings Satya (Bhatt) and her younger brother Ankur (Raina). After Ankur is falsely trapped in a drug case, incarcerated in a foreign prison, and put on death row, Satya takes it upon herself to free him. Bhatia (Manoj Pahwa), whose son is also in the same prison, helps her. Will they succeed before time runs out?
There is not enough thrill to keep you hooked
A film like this should run at breakneck speed without unnecessarily dragged-out sequences, but that is not the case here. The thrill should keep you on the edge of your seat and you should be completely invested in Ankur's story, but Jigra fails at these aspects. It must have been incredibly promising on paper, but most ideas have fizzled out on screen.
More on the aforementioned point
The storyline is unsteady and haphazard, and the necessary edge—a primary requisite for a movie like this—is nowhere to be found. The entire plot is about the race against time, Ankur's life barely hangs by a thread, Satya confronts seemingly insurmountable odds in a foreign country, and yet, the sense of urgency is sorely missing. Eventually, your heart hardly beats for the characters.
It keeps repeating the same point
After a point, you just want Ankur to be released, not necessarily because you care, but because the story feels stale. We don't spend much time with the characters before these life-changing events to know them closely, so everything feels shallow and superficial. As much as I want to root for a female-led film, Jigra's patience-testing pace makes it difficult to advocate for it.
Most sequences are too convenient, too predictable
The film starts decently and grips you for a few minutes, but then its never-ending plunge toward mediocrity and blandness begins. At one point, a resolution occurred so conveniently that I wondered whether it was a dream sequence, and at another juncture, a character took a completely 180-degree turn, easily swayed by Satya. Such convenient plot turns rob the film of any gravity.
You might have already seen movies like this earlier
The shadow of other similar films (such as Sridevi-Sanjay Dutt's Gumrah) looms large over Jigra, and if you're looking for something unconventional and innovative, you're in for disappointment. The film repeatedly uses overly dramatic background music to make you feel something, the metaphors are always in-your-face, and dialogues (like, tu mere protection me hai), feel contrived and wooden. They don't quite naturally flow.
Positives: Another example of Bala's trademark filmmaking technique
Coming to what works for Jigra, Bala's love for cinema is once again palpable in the easter eggs and clever references he peppers throughout the movie. Pahwa's character being called Bhatia is likely a reference to Office Office, Amitabh Bachchan's iconic songs add life to otherwise ordinary scenes, and Bala's previous collaborators turn up in unexpected places. Look for more such creative winks!
The dramatic portions outshine the action ones
I like how Satya is established in the beginning. Right from childhood, she nurtures Ankur; when their father dies by suicide, she covers his eyes but doesn't turn away herself, and is the go-to savior who'll go through hell and back for Ankur. The message is clear: She grew up faster than she should have, and the chinks in her armor will never show.
'Ek Hazaron Mein...' massively elevates scenes
I wish the aforementioned aspects of Satya (and similarly the defining traits of Ankur) had been better defined and well-cooked before the "thrill" part took over. Beyond this, Raina's Ek Hazaron Mein Meri Behna rendition left me an emotional wreck; it tugs at your heartstrings and hits all the right spots. If only this cathartic element dominated the rest of the film, too.
Can give it a miss; 2/5 stars
Bhatt brings alive the burning seethe and ache of a woman thrown to the wolves, and her eyes do most of the talking. However, the team's acting abilities can't salvage a screenplay gone awry; and the lack of nuance, overstretched runtime (155 minutes), and underdeveloped characters do Jigra no favors. After a decent start, it falls into an abyss and just keeps falling further.
