JJ is truly a cinematic experience, its an explosion of the senses, of sights, sounds, experiences, emotions, memories, at the same time stimulating our brain with whodunit mysteries and a sinister international arms smuggling ring ruthlessly eliminating its enemies.
Its also appealing to our conscience, questioning our apathy at the senseless violence inflicted on innocents with the aid of illegal weapons and the collusion of powers that be with those nefarious enemies of mankind.
Anurag Basu and Ranbir have hit it out of the park with this 3 year long labor of love, this amalgamation of comic book adventures and detective novels.
Basu pays homage to Hitchcock (the clock tower murder mystery as in Vertigo), to Tintin comics, and also to Satyajit Ray in the imaginary country of Shundi (from Ray's Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne)
The 2nd half is almost entirely inspired by Pure Luck where Jagga is in Danny Glover's detective role and Kat is the Bad Lucky Martin Short who is helping Danny find the carbon copy bad lucky heiress, here replaced by Jagga's dad.
I wonder if any critic has noticed the inspiration from Pure Luck?
The 1st 20 mins is crucial to the movie, its not just songs, its the backstory which forms the crux of the movie. It starts with the Purulia Arms Drop in 1995 when the illegal weapons are dropped by mistake at a film location instead of where the militants were waiting with their reflector signals.
And as always Bagchi's bad luck that he stumbled on an international arms suppliers ring...and he got embroiled in the whole sinister game as a result.
Kat is the sutradhar, the story teller in true Brechtian tradition but then shes also part and parcel of the story, shes a main character, a journalist who is stumbling onto leads and leading Jagga to solve the arms smuggling case.
She switches gears to tell the story of Jagga's childhood, an orphan abandoned at a hospital, sleeping under the stairs Potter style but not ill-treated, he was loved and cared for by hospital workers...and how Jagga stumbled upon an injured Bagchi, helped him recover and hence formed a lifelong circle of love and trust. Bagchi adopted him and also taught him how to sing his words to overcome his pronounced stammer.
Little Jagga's sadness when his father leaves him was heartbreaking, the older Jagga's melancholy and longing for his absentee father is so well portrayed in that song and when hes waiting for his birthday vdo on top of that weird tower.
The 1st case of Ms Mala's murder was to introduce us to Jagga's amazing deduction skills but the 2nd case where he meets Shruti is tied to the arms smuggling trade which is central focus of the movie.
The story is not linear, it shifts back and forth, swings from past to present and in between so some people may have problems understanding a few scenes but focus is always strongly on the central story of arms trade and Jagga's father's disappearance.
Saurabh Shukla's character was so nasty in the movie that I was glad when he died when the rocket they had fired themselves struck their car and exploded.
Bengalis will get an extra thrill out of this movie because of several words and references to famous books, movies, and above all, Netaji and INA's use of the hidden cave between Burma and India, which is now being used to smuggle weapons.
The imaginary country name Shundi is taken from Satyajit Ray's movie Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne based on a children's story written by his grandfather Upendrakishore Roychowdhury
Bengali words are dropped here and there throughout the movie, like Gondogol..
The funniest Bong-ism was Agapastala...which is actually a Bengali word meaning top to bottom or head to toe.
So while they are searching for Bagchi from top to bottom in the African country, they are looking in 99 hotels named Agapastala...what a hilarious play on words there 😆
Now for the director, artists and technicians:
Basu: His vision, his story, direction, the whole creation is worth the wait. He has made something extraordinary, something nobody has tried before, a comic book adventure cum musical and accomplished it successfully. Hats off to the dreamer! 👏
Ranbir: What can I say that others have not already said, hes just BRILLIANT, OUTSTANDING, Hes so Natural, just blends into the character, he becomes Jagga, not for a moment did he seem out of place in that boys hostel, or as a young detective. Jagga's melancholy sadness abt his missing father, his madcap adventurous escapades, his taking risks to save others lives, his crush on Shruti, his quick wit and antennae for danger...everything is portrayed so naturally, without a misstep.👏
Kat: The surprise package, she always delivers her best when paired with Ranbir as also seen in APKGK and Rajneeti but Ive never seen her so adorably funny and goofy as in this movie.
Shes clumsy and prone to bad luck syndrome like Bagchi, but just like him her Guardian Angel works overtime and she gets saved in the nick of time, usually by Jagga.
Everytime she was falling or crashing into something, whole audience was laughing out loud. she was a smart and dignified journalist, yet goofy and clumsy as hell...she pulled off the dichotomy very well
Saswata Chatterjee as Tutifuti Badal Bagchi was very endearing as the dad, yet also quick witted and extremely smart to investigate the international arms smuggling operations without getting bumped off. Being accident prone bad lucky didnt stop him from using his wits to get out of tricky, lethal situations..
Music: Pritam excels in background score as well as most of the songs which are apt for the situations. Galti se Mistake was even more foot tapping dance inducing on the big screen. Ullu ka Pattha was a visual and auditory delight alongwith some fabulous dancing moves by RK and Kat. Ranbir is such an underrated dancer.
The Nimbu Mirchi song was like a slap on callous attitudes towards death and violence, it prods our apathy to senseless tragedies and questions our false sense of well being.
Khana Khakey song was wacky as well as philosophical, celebrating the birthday of Shruti's dead boyfriend called for something like that
Lyrics: Can someone already give all awards available to Amitabh Bhattacharya? How does he do it? For every song in every movie he gives the perfect words to fit the situation. Such wit, such whimsical and emotional intelligence in his lyrics.👏
Cinematography: Outstanding, some of the scenes were like paintings, that lush green field where RK and Kat were wearing baskets, or the vast stretch of desert topography with tall giraffes grazing along, the distant shots of a train in the desert and that old timer plane, and even the indoor shots where the action was taking place, the lighting to set the mood for each scene...ALL TOP NOTCH! 👏
My only complaint is the last 20 mins action sequences were too fast paced and frenetic, scene changes were abrupt and some in between scenes seem to have been edited out so it looked weird at times.
Overall a very satisfying movie experience, I was waiting for this movie and Im delighted that its even better than my high expectations from a Basu and Ranbir collaboration.
They have indeed outdone themselves, made something unique and novel and I really hope they come up with a sequel because I want to know what will happen next.
My rating: 4 out of 5
Advocate Anjali Awasthi
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