Need some bit of Jigra for this one

‘Yeh masala film thode hi hai…’ perhaps not, or maybe yes. For, ‘Jigra’, otherwise inspired by Yash Johar’s Sridevi and Sanjay Dutt-starrer ‘Gumraah’, sounds like an ode to Big B. Coincidentally coming on Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday, Vasan Bala’s film pays obvious tributes to ‘Zanjeer’ and fashions Alia Bhatt’s Satya as the female Bachchan in spirit and temper. The reference is obvious not only in the songs which play every now and then, but also this dialogue — ‘Zyada Bachchan banne ki zaroorat nahi hai, bachke nikalne ka hai’. Only, Satya won’t budge an inch and is steadfast in her resolve and anger. To cut a long story short, she is a fiercely and furiously loving sister, indeed also on the lines of ‘ek hazaron mein meri behna hai’, which, too, we get to hear more than once.

Only, unlike many Hindi films, here she is a saviour to her brother, who is wrongly implicated in a drug-peddling case and that too in a foreign land. The island in question is fictional but suspiciously close to an autocratic North Korea, where punishment for drugs is outright death penalty. The brother has to be saved at any cost and thus she takes the law into her own hand and manages a jailbreak on foreign soil. Sounds too far-fetched… how can this slip of a girl fight, plan and manage this mission impossible? Well, help is at hand. We have the ever-reliable actor Manoj Pahwa as Mr Bhatia, aka Tiger, whose son too is in the same jail, and retired police officer Muthu (Rahul Ravindran), who wants to free an innocent man.

Together, they hatch a plan which sounds foolproof on paper… only, before they can utter action, things go awry. The death date gets advanced and now it’s a ‘do or die’ situation. Rest of the story needs no telling except that jailbreak scenes are captured remarkably well. ‘Bhasad’, the Hindi word for mayhem, literally lives on the screen with animated vigour. Actually, cinematography by Swapnil S Sonawane is top notch not only in the climatic scenes, but all through. The movie scores a 10 on 10 as far as atmospherics go. The flavour of the country, even if not named, its people, the impenetrable jails, everything seems on point and authentic.

In a Karan Johar film, when Alia too joins as a producer, you can’t expect the production design to cut corners. The locales are spectacular. Only, this action drama-cum-jail escape story doesn’t tug at your heartstrings. Despite a sibling bond at the core of its story, there are no emotive or stirring moments. The backstory does not add to emotional heft either. Rather, the song ‘Tenu Sang Rakhna’ — written by Varun Grover and music by Achint Thakkar with vocals by Arijit Singh, Anumita Nadesan and Thakkar — is more touching than anything else in the film.

Young actor Vedang Raina (last seen in the Netflix film ‘Archies’) fits the part of the vulnerable young brother, Anuj. His predicament, be it being let down by his best friend or his treatment in the jail at the hands of Landa (Vivek Gomber), is shorn off melodrama and seems more clinical than unsettling.

Alia as the angry young woman who knows only one truth, ‘I am the sister of Anuj’, aces her part, even though her petite frame defies the fighter she is portraying. But, Bala of movies like ‘Monica, O My Darling’, we know, always turns things on its head. And Alia manages to transfer the anger within on to her face and mannerisms with total conviction. Her frenetic desire to protect her brother is evident as much in the lines she utters, as in the kickass action she delivers. For credulity sake, she happens to be a yellow belt karate holder.

Manoj Pahwa will never miss a beat and so he doesn’t here too. Vivek Gomber as the despicable jail in-charge is impeccable. After impressing us in Jai Mehta’s ‘Lootere’, he comes out trumps once more.

But a film has to be more than a sum of its parts. In parts, you do see Bala’s brilliant direction at work. He is very much in control of the material at hand. Proceedings are taut and suspenseful even when predictable. But the film never flies and though Tiger tells Satya, ‘Mazaa aeya’, we can’t say ditto. ‘Jigra’, though not lacking in jigr, does not win our heart.

Give us a regular masala movie any day. An Amitabh Bachchan one, even more so.