Saturday 10 October 2015

Jazba the movie - what I saw


Jazba the movie - what I saw
 
Aishwarya run-bend-contort-exercise-go to court- argue-steal evidence-win case-run-scream-break in to houses-get beaten up-go to court-present evidence-win case-tell police officer he cannot arrest without warrant.

Jazba - I do not what it means though I am inclined to believe that it's an Urdu word, I still don't know what it means.

The movie is about the bandra-worli sea link, bandra reclamation, the eastern free way, marsh lands of wadala, salt pans, reay road, hay bunder, masjid bunder, GPO all shot in sepia tone, black and white, from the top, from the bottom, from the sides, and an incident in between.

This movie is a fitness video meets court room drama meets action thriller meets revenge meets crimes against women meets you.

There is an incident in this movie which is a big clue to what the director had in mind when he made it. So we have suspended police officer, suspended for being corrupt, (Irrfan khan as inspector Yohann) bashing up a suspect

Suspect: Tum mujhe maar nahi sakte. I have rights.

Yohann: Tum aaj kal hollywood ki picture bahot dekhta hai.

This dialogue is the dead giveaway. The director was so busy with the technicalities of photography that he completely missed the dialogue writer surreptitiously insert a warning to the viewers.

So we have Mrs. AR-B running, and exercising and sending a message to all and sundry that at forty she is absolutely fit. She is a criminal lawyer by day defending all the baddies, and a hot shot one too. So what if she steals a little bit of evidence from the police.

Let me mention here that the director has absolutely no knowledge of the legal system, and has taken no efforts to do any kind of research. He is probably not even aware of tareek pe tareek or agli sunwai. After it is all it is about Mrs. AR-B, her fitness and her acting and the worli bandra sea link.

So Mrs. AR-B's daughter gets kidnapped in the middle of a relay race which incidentally is won by Mrs. AR-B. The kidnapper wants Mrs. AR-B to defend a murder convict in an upcoming appeal as he is "innocent" and thus secure the release of her daughter. The police are of course told to vamoose as the daughter is "safe" with her grandmother. No one including the school questions her absence.

But why kidnap is the first question that hits you. Wouldn't it have been simpler in getting her to work by just holding a gun to her head?

Mrs. AR-B goes about her job as if nothing has happened after all the kidnapper might harm her daughter. By a strange co-incidence it is Inspector Yohann who has caught the murder now being defended by Mr. AR-B and by a further co-incidence Inspector Yohann is also Mrs. AR-B's school friend/class mate whom she used to outrun even then.

But instead of just fighting in a court room, Mrs. AR-B goes beyond her call of duty. She cons the victim's mother into thinking that she is a researcher, breaks in to the victim's house for evidence, goes visiting disco's and rehab centers to check on other suspects and all with the helping hand of Inspector Yohann. This is a Hindi movie after all.

The murder convict says he has raped and murdered the victim. You say there is no logic to whatever that is happening. At this point enters Jackie Shroff as a crorepati MP whose son was the victim's boyfriend and now in rehab for drug abuse and therefore not questioned at the time of the murder. We seem to have another suspect now.

There is also the victim's mother (Shabana Azmi) who questions why Mrs. AR-B is defending the accused who has raped and murdered her daughter when she is a woman herself.

There are way too many glitches and loose ends in this movie. When the kidnapper sends Mrs. AR-B daughter's shoes to her, the soles of the shoes are clean. I mean if the girl was kidnapped from the school grounds on a sports day in the midst of a running race, wouldn't the soles be dirty.

In a scene towards the end, you have Jackie Shroff sitting in the audience in the court room. If he is an MP and insists that his son had nothing to do with the murder, what was he doing there when his son was not even in the court room or had not even been summoned.

Somewhere in the middle you get a fair clue as to who might be the person behind what is going on.

Anyway Mrs. AR-B wins the case. The kidnapper releases her daughter. The accused is set free. 

But this is not how it ends.  It ends with Mrs. AR-B telling the police that they cannot arrest the Kidnapper without a warrant. So far in all hindi movies the police have arrived on the "crime scene" towards the end and utter "You are under arrest". Nobody has ever questioned them on the necessity of a warrant. But our lady does.
Obviously this top-shot criminal lawyer is now representing her daughter's kidnapper and has never heard of the powers of the police to arrest without a warrant.
Now please see the movie to fill in the gaps.
PS: Please note that I have already mentioned earlier there is an element of revenge too.
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