Jagga Jasoos BO/Review Thread[Note pg 24]

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ya ya girl

@Maharani69

Rocker

+ 6

Posted: 8 years ago

#531

Thanks RR for the index on page 1. This thread was such a mess thanks to all the posts from twitter. I was looking for some legible reviews. The MOM BO thread was so easy to navigate courtesy the credible member reviews which made me watch the movie.

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Don't worry, be happy.

@Ranbirrocks

Stunner

+ 4

Posted: 8 years ago

#532

Originally posted by: BB10
Thanks RR for the index on page 1. This thread was such a mess thanks to all the posts from twitter. I was looking for some legible reviews. The MOM BO thread was so easy to navigate courtesy the credible member reviews which made me watch the movie.

You are welcome BB.

Members Reviews are on Page 2, firs comment. First 2 pages will give you everything you need.

Ofcourse , the Index is being updated as Reviews are coming faster .

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PhunsukWangdu

@PhunsukWangdu

Voyager

Posted: 8 years ago

#533

JAGGA JASOOS MOVIE REVIEW: DERAILED BY A HEROINE WHO CAN'T MATCH RANBIR KAPOOR'S TALENT

Director Anurag Basu's creation is stunning and ambitious but tries to do too much. Ranbir Kapoor's Jagga must find his nutty old father as well as save the world

Director: Anurag Basu

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Saswata Chatterjee, Saurabh Shukla

Early on in Jagga Jasoos, a mysterious new patient meets a little orphan boy who has grown up in the hospital. The boy has a crippling stutter, and has rarely ever said a word. The gentle man explains to him the idea of singing out his thoughts instead: the left side of the brain is logical and supports speech, while the right side is crazy and creative. The boy should use the right side to speak. To communicate. And, therefore, sing. And soar converting prose into poetry, silence into music, expression into feelings, stories into clownish fairytales and ideas into colorful action.

Convert humans into believers, he perhaps wants to tell the boy.

This is also, in a way, what the director wants to tell us. He is going to use that right side to narrate a seemingly straightforward story. He is going to sing out his script to us. It won't tell us things as much as it touches our hand. He has done it before, but not in this literal sense. And it has been illogical and strange, and occasionally beautiful and transcendental. The audiovisual undercurrent of passion has defined even Anurag Basu's pre-Barfidramas: the doomed Kites had a haunting sound of madness to it, while Gangster had a monochromatic, lilting darkness to its unhinged spaces.

And lately, that passion has acquired a light to it. It's the happier kind of madness the kind that envelops his vision more than the stubborn singularity of his characters.

There's something about the way Basu dreams. You get a sense that he isn't forced to dream. His vivid cinematic canvas isn't merely a desperate reaction to the truths of this bitter world. His version of magic realism is global and regional, inspired and derivative, real and innocent, organic and scattered; his manner of storytelling isn't just another overly inventive or franchise-centric reincarnation of disillusioned realism.

He thinks on a purely sensory level of adults willfully occupying a child's dreamscape, populating an environment full of visual entendre, haphazardly organized choreography, colour-coordinated hues, circus-like chases and unevenly quirky narratives. The sounds, the whimsical imagery, the Broadway-musical language, the Chaplin-ish milieu they all belong to the sort of aesthetically aspirational universe that makes me love the movies. They make me want to be a movie.

There's something about the way Basu dreams. You get a sense that he isn't forced to dream. His vivid cinematic canvas isn't merely a desperate reaction to the truths of this bitter world.

They make me believe that even when I forget how to dream honestly, I could just enter this hopelessly hopeful world where fantastic beasts like Amlie Poulain, Walter Mitty, Ishaan Awasthi, Murphy Johnson and Max Records coexist together beneath one gingerbread roof. The cultures are many, but their soul is one.

Jagga (Ranbir Kapoor), too, lives here. He probably shares a custom-made bunk bed with Murphy (Barfi!) in one room. Both of them have partaken in farfetched adventures kick-started by a parent (Saswata Chatterjee as the father figure, in Jagga Jasoos) in peril. They have perhaps grown up sharing tales about these times in Darjeeling, Kolkata and, now, Ukhrul and Mombasa. These tales, as they often do, start with giant clock towers and boarding schools, tiny beginnings hijacked by broad thrills.

The problem with Jagga, though, is that he wants to do everything. He wants to say so much. He wants his story to have more, and go places, and go into exotic sunsets across continents, in order to straddle a younger, vaster genre. And his stutter manifests itself into a chaotically cute film bursting with ambition and voice, but missing the love. As a result, he feels he must build on and outdo the inherent artfulness of Barfi! more in scale and reach than compassion and nature.

He wants to find his nutty old man a personal journey that is tonally relevant on its own but he also has to save the world to achieve the same. This save-the-world part is unfortunately not an awkward afterthought or footnote; it's a full-blown track that steps into puddles, skirts across cartoonish spy games and tiptoes around heightened comic-book-paneled narratives of illegal arms rackets, double agents, murderous cops and two-headed kingpins (that's right).

It was always going to be messy and perhaps intentionally clumsy, especially because Jagga, as a device, belongs to the literary imagination (a desi Tintin of sorts) of someone as uninspired and wooden as Katrina Kaif(as "investigative journalist Shruti Sengupta, whose accent has of course again been justified with an annoying London-return background). But a lot of this film's otherwise-luminescent treatment details feel forgettable because of the presence of a "heroine not even in the same stratosphere of talent as Ranbir Kapoor. Kaif is actually narrating this story almost as a stage performance, based on her experiences with an enigmatic teenage detective, to a roomful of kids. There's a lot of her we have to hear. And see. She is designed to make a difference.

With her on the run with him for more than half the film, it's hard not to mentally equate her character's trademark cloddishness with the declining relevance of Kaif's lead-acting career. Whenever she has another funny accident, I found myself laughing not so much at Shruti's travails but Kaif's ability to keep derailing a flow of events that should have rested squarely on the shoulders of Kapoor or perhaps a more competent artist like Alia Bhatt or Priyanka Chopra.

There's also a clear reluctance to her chemistry with Kapoor, which might or might not work in context of their non-romantic, unrequited relationship. Again, I might be subconsciously thinking about Barfi!, and so much of its misfits-unite theme that got lost in translation here. Because the fact is that a predecessor that primarily trusted its emotional instincts has already defined our biased perceptions of Jagga's identical landscape.

For instance, there's a lovely little scene in the beginning that serves as a base for junior Jagga's curious nature. Across lyrics and sounds, again, we see him noticing a heart with two names carved into his school bench. He secretly invades the student files and identifies the address of the now-old couple. The man, who now visits his dead wife's grave every week, sees the bench transported to his garden. He sees their names. He is overwhelmed by this memory. Little Jagga looks on, a do-gooder par genre constraints. A rescuer of humanity.

I can imagine Anurag Basu, like most of us, getting very inspired by a similar scene from French visionary Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amlie. This moment is a fleeting one. It made me want to feel the same way many times over the next two hours again. It suggested the enticing possibility of Jagga operating on this intimate level of cheer.

It fitted perfectly into the heart of a plot dominated by a brave misfit simply determined to find his long-lost father; or perhaps of India's finest young male star, determined to identify a cluster of balanced sensibilities that may reward his consistent leap of faiths. Naturally, he'd affect destinies on the way, knowingly and subconsciously. And naturally, his failures even as they entail participation in a bloated, good-natured snapshot of studio-powered eccentricity will endure as strongly as his successes once did.

For a country that has virtually built its legacy of cinematic expression on the foundation of amplified song-and-dance grammar, it's odd that making a sprawling, conventional musical is considered a huge risk. It took eleven years for anyone to dare in mainstream Hindi cinema, after Shirish Kunder's misunderstood Jaan-E-Mann (2006).

Basu and Kapoor might have made the mistake of dreaming with their eyes open this time. But it isn't a fatal one. It's a passionate one. It's spectacularly committed and, most of all, hopes for another day.

Whether it's a sequel (especially after the notoriously troubled production delay) or a soul sister, I want more of this. I want cinema to look like the movies again. We spend too long trying to feel like adults. And in the pursuit of trying to dissect the "coherence and legitimacy of modern-day dreams, we might have forgotten that we need a little more of Jagga, and a little less of Jasoosi.

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NutellaWaffle

@NutellaWaffle

Stunner

+ 8

Posted: 8 years ago

#534

Rajasen gave 4 ⭐️

Jagga Jasoos Movie Review: Ranbir Kapoor Charms As A Hero All Children Should Have

Jagga Jasoos movie review: Jagga Jasoos is a dazzling, inventive and deliciously fun film, a musical mystery fable that curious children (of all ages) should watch at the soonest.

All India | Raja Sen | Updated: July 14, 2017 18:24 IST

by Taboola

Jagga Jasoos Movie Review: Must Watch Or Can Miss?

JULY 14, 2017| BY KARMIK VARMA

Rate this article

Put your hands in the air and bring them together peeps for India's First Ever Musical Film! That done, let's get to brass tacks.

still from the movie

A collaborative effort between director Anurag Basu and Disney India, Jagga Jasoos has been in the news ever since it was announced. The massively delayed film had garnered most attention for its lead pair Ranbir & Katrina had just broken up when the film was announced. Finally, as the movie is out, is it entertaining enough for your time and money? Let's find out...

still from the movie

The film opens with Shruti Sengupta (Katrina Kaif) narrating the spy comic book stories of Jagga to her students, which of course are based on real life Jagga. Ranbir Kapoor (Jagga) is an orphan who stammers through his lines and prefers to stay quiet than becoming the butt of all jokes. Yet, he is not only bright as the sun and great with innovations and investigations but also sensitive and humane. He saves the life of a professor Bagchi (Saswata Chatterjee) and together the two develop a father-son relationship that is quite endearing and heart-warming.

Set initially the India of the 90s; the movie exposes the deplorable din of illegal arms trading and how war lords believe in the proliferation of weapons for their own selfish gains. Caught in the middle of this global hate mongering, are our central characters of Jagga, Shruti and Prof. Bagchi.

still from the movie

With the entry of the unscrupulous character of Surabh Shukla, Jagga and his adopted father are separated but remain in touch with VHS tapes recorded by Bagchi and couriered to Jagga every birthday. These tapes cover everything from General Knowledge to Parental Guidance and it was quite amusing to see how the tapes actually take the movie forward.

Meanwhile, Shruti's character (she plays a journalist) is busy unearthing the skeletons of illegal arms trade in India but finds herself wanted for murder. It isn't without Jagga's help that she is able to wash her hands clean off the false crime and willingly swears to be there for Jagga whenever need be.

still from the movie

As fate would have it, when Jagga learns about Bagchi's death, he asks Shruti to help him find the truth. Why Shruti? Because the father's and her bad luck is equally bad and Jagga feels this connection will help him solve the curious case of Prof. Bagchi's death. And well, it does!!!

And so, ditching the locales of West Bengal & Manipur; they fly half way across the world to Africa to solve the mystery. Along the way, they fly a plane, sing to the cops, dance to earn monies; hell they even ride ostriches. Together they are the Geek Chic, the Nerd Herd that may not look cool, but are way kewler than some of the coolest you may know of.

Director Anurag Basu has handled the film innovatively and intelligently. The best part about the movie is that unlike the musicals in Hollywood (Chicago, La La Land, Les Misrables) where the song and dance are a given' simply due to the genre; Anurag Basu clearly justifies why Jagga sings throughout the movie. This fresh, Indian take on a musical is totally welcomed by us. Another feather to his cap is the logic he has infused in every co-incidence. He has even managed to make bad luck look good!

still from the movie

Ranbir Kapoor will sway you all the way. He has delivered yet another impeccable performance. The Ranbir-Basu pairing after Barfi will certainly make a special place in your heart. His stammering could easily look forced and animated, but Ranbir manages to convince you with his spontaneity and effortless acting.

He is ably supported by Saswata Chatterjee; who excels in the father-son scenes; most of which are with a younger Jagga. By now we all know the limitations that Katrina Kaif comes with and we were happy with her being the cutesy, pretty self. Her chemistry with Ranbir seemed very natural; especially in the song Ullu Ka Pattha'.

still from the movie

Jagga Jasoos has all the makings of a typical Disney flick, from the colours to the music to the brilliant VFX (done in India by Red Chillies); the kids are sure going to enjoy it. Another plus is the slick edit and picturesque cinematography. The screenplay could have been crisper but a high entertainment quotient ensures that you don't find it long.

iKarmik says, Jagga Jasoos is a must watch for two reasons it being India's first musical and an entertaining one (especially for kids); and for Basu's completely different take on mystery films. Here are three nerds who have their own imperfections but their noble intentions take them through every troubled time. A fitting twist in the end will leave you wanting to see the sequel immediately, but there's much time for that! The issue that the film will face is that of it being a tad bit too intelligent for the lousy watcher who is used to seeing bullets flying and brains frying in typical investigative thriller style. But if you ain't that watcher, go watch Jagga Jasoos. We would have gone with an average of 2.5 stars; but added an extra .5 for Anurag Basu's daredevil vision and Ranbir Kapoor's perfect 10 acting prowess.

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Edited by Ranbirrocks - 8 years ago

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ya ya girl

@Maharani69

Rocker

+ 6

Posted: 8 years ago

#536

I don't understand this Shubhra Gupta person. She legit writes a sub par review for every movie. Tries too hard to act like those elusive NYT critics. In the last 3 months, she's only liked the movie Mukti Bhawan, rating it a sad 3.5. :s
Itne miserly way main toh teachers bhi marking nahin karte.

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hotchic.

@hotchic

Sparkler

+ 5

Posted: 8 years ago

#537

Raja Sen gives 4. Wow. The tension surrounding is slowly fading away.

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PhunsukWangdu

@PhunsukWangdu

Voyager

Posted: 8 years ago

#538

Movie Review: Jagga Jasoos Detective loses the plot

By somaayabhawana14 July, 2017Uncategorized

ilm: Jagga Jasoos

Date: 14 July 2017

Writer/ Director: Anurag Basu

Music: Pritam

Stars: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Saswata Chatterjee

Ratings: 2 stars

I have often wondered why a film that has been in the making for too long somehow never appeals to the audience. Does the film get delayed because the people making it lose interest or does the delay become the cause of the loss of interest among those involved? It is a mystery I have never been able to resolve. One thing is certain however the audience always senses the vibration of a film they somehow always know instinctively what's going to work for them and what's not.

Jagga Jasoos is the story of a lovable orphan raised in a hospital, until one day he finds a Godfather/ Bagchi who brings him home and fills his life with care. The paradise is short lived because Bagchi/ Saswat Chatterjee has a secret mission to fulfil and admits Jagga into a boarding school promising to fetch him soon but never comes back. Months roll into years and now Jagga is a big boy/Ranbir Kapoor who has a nose for mystery and his friends call him Jagga detective.

At the onset, it has to be said that Jagga Jasoos is not a regular film. It is scripted like a play and shot like an opera where characters break into a jig and song every time they need to express themselves. Initially, it is all very attractive and we are drawn into the meadows and the melody, the yellow fields, the singing birds, the grazing animals and the mesmerising nature but after a while, the one-dimensional characters and the monotony of the treatment become a tedious watch.

When Jagga does not receive his annual courier from his father he sets on a distant journey to find him and accompanying him is his new friend, accident prone journalist Shruti Sengupta/ Katrina Kaif. The second half of the film travels to exotic locations and combines action an adventure but we are not entertained because the narrative is dull and far from engaging.

As Ranbir's father Saswat Chatterjee delivers a convincing performance but the normally dependable Saurabh Shukla has no scope to shine. Katrina Kaif looks visibly disinterested and Ranbir Kapoor mysteriously lacks the zing! Just a few years ago director Anurag Basu and Ranbir Kapoor together gave us Barfee that we have yet to recover from. Now they bring us Jagga Jasoos after a three-hour watch I have yet to recover from!!

Watch Jagga Jasoos only if you are a Katrina- Ranbir fan so that you can resolve the mystery what went wrong and why. I failed and therefore rate Jagga Jasoos with 2 stars.

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Jagga Jasoos Movie Review: Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif shine before camera

By Mayank Shekhar | Mumbai | Posted 52 minutes ago

'Jagga Jasoos'

U/A; Mystery/Musical/Comedy

Director: Anurag Basu

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif

Rating: 2/5

This film itself is a serious leap of faith. Now it depends on whether the audience is also willing to take that leap. On the face of it, they should be. Honestly, I know no two faces as pleasant as Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif on the Indian screen. They naturally shine before the camera. And while Katrina may have a thing or two to worry about her performances per se, it's hard to find an actor so sorted, and yet with an innate star-like quality as Ranbir.

That said, for all cause and effect, this is a completely children's movie. Clearly that part of the message doesn't seem to have been relayed well as I look around at the morning show in my theatre, which is half packed, but mainly with young adultsthe lead actor's personal fan base. There isn't a single kid. Now that's a bummer.

Ranbir Kapoor, 34, plays the orphaned high-school boy Jagga, in a uniform that could perhaps pass off for Harry Potter's Hogwarts', while the upward lick on the side of his full-hair decidedly belongs to Tintin, and the picture itself is a self-aware Hollywood style musical, since li'l Jagga can overcome his severe stammer only if he sings aloud what he wants to say, in perfectly poetic meter.

What we're being introduced to, altogether afresh, is a series of detective fiction adventures of Jagga (an odd sorta Indiana Jones), who has a knack for 'jasoosi'. Exactly how he cracks his cases is beyond me, but then if you're a 10-year-old (and this movie should have been in 3D), it definitely doesn't matter. What does is that Jagga is on his wayright across the Third World, from Kolkata to Africato find his missing foster father, played by Saswata Chatterjee (who, by the way, should be cast as Arnab Goswami, if there's a forthcoming skit/film based on the newscaster).

Both the story and screenplay of this film have been separately credited to Anurag Basu, the director. Basu, better known in Bollywood as the much-loved Dada, is, visually, the most sound mainstream filmmaker there is. And you can gauge this from pretty much all his leaps of faith in the past, including 'Kites' (2010), if you may, which was a visual delight, if nothing else.

This is one of the reasons he has been rightly allowed his self-indulgence in a commercial industry that has little cash or patience for testing bounds of creativity. A lot of his films, I'm told, live in his head and somehow come together at the edit. Which perhaps explains why it took three and half years to pull this deliberate haphazardness off. 'Life In A Metro' (2007) was a class act in that regard.

Frankly, Dada got away with 'Barfi' (2012), because it was beautiful, although with practically no basis in reality to touch you much. Through the Purulia arms dropping case, this film slyly looks into arms trade that circularly funds war. But 'Jagga Jasoos' is essentially a madcap, comic book style Indiana Jones. Or at least aspires to be. The time-line is flexible (flat-screen TVs exist alongside VHS tapes, as do cell phones with rotary landlines). There is nothing to undermine still the audacity of the imagination.

You can tell the filmmakers are attempting to create a semi-alternate world. Where does the world start falling flat ever so progressively? Well. It's one thing to feel like you're on a ride, quite another if you're tired of travelling all over the place. There's clearly an issue if you're mildly gob-smacked by the spectacle and the choreography, but care less for what happens next, and more for when this will all end.

Maybe I was this film's target audience once (at least I've something to recommend to my little niece). And maybe age has nothing to do with the audience anyway. Either case, this is certainly something you haven't checked out on the Indian screen before (so what if that's not always a compliment).

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Don't worry, be happy.

@Ranbirrocks

Stunner

+ 4

Posted: 8 years ago

#539

Lots of Reviews added to the list

Originally posted by: Ranbirrocks

For Index of page numbers - Check this if you are unsure if Review is already posted -
This will be updated regularly

Firstpost review , P 45 -
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/4872129/jagga-jasoos-bo-review-thread-note-pg-24?pn=45

SK Jha
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/4872129/jagga-jasoos-bo-review-thread-note-pg-24?pn=44

inuth

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/4872129/jagga-jasoos-bo-review-thread-note-pg-24?pn=49

Indicine

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/4872129/jagga-jasoos-bo-review-thread-note-pg-24?pn=50

Aahana Bhattachrya
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/4872129/jagga-jasoos-bo-review-thread-note-pg-24?pn=50

Review
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/4872129/jagga-jasoos-bo-review-thread-note-pg-24?pn=52

Tushar Joshi
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/4872129/jagga-jasoos-bo-review-thread-note-pg-24?pn=52

Shubra Gupta
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/4872129/jagga-jasoos-bo-review-thread-note-pg-24?pn=54

Rachit Gupta
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/142996685

KoiMoi
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/142996685

Bollywood hungama
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/4872129/jagga-jasoos-bo-review-thread-note-pg-24?pn=57

HT
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/4872129/jagga-jasoos-bo-review-thread-note-pg-24?pn=57

Another review - Behindwoods Reviews

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/4872129/jagga-jasoos-bo-review-thread-note-pg-24?pn=60

News18
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/142997703

Priya
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/4872129/jagga-jasoos-bo-review-thread-note-pg-24?pn=62

Refdiff
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/142997995

Mumbai Mirror
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/4872129/jagga-jasoos-bo-review-thread-note-pg-24?pn=65

Vbollywod.com
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/142999899

Raja Sen
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/143000264

Ikarmik.com
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/143000264

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Kara

@Kara_R

Voyager

Posted: 8 years ago

#540

Originally posted by: PhunsukWangdu
JAGGA JASOOS MOVIE REVIEW: DERAILED BY A HEROINE WHO CAN'T MATCH RANBIR KAPOOR'S TALENT

Director Anurag Basu's creation is stunning and ambitious but tries to do too much. Ranbir Kapoor's Jagga must find his nutty old father as well as save the world
Director: Anurag Basu
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Saswata Chatterjee, Saurabh Shukla
Early on in Jagga Jasoos, a mysterious new patient meets a little orphan boy who has grown up in the hospital. The boy has a crippling stutter, and has rarely ever said a word. The gentle man explains to him the idea of singing out his thoughts instead: the left side of the brain is logical and supports speech, while the right side is crazy and creative. The boy should use the right side to speak. To communicate. And, therefore, sing. And soar converting prose into poetry, silence into music, expression into feelings, stories into clownish fairytales and ideas into colorful action.
Convert humans into believers, he perhaps wants to tell the boy.
This is also, in a way, what the director wants to tell us. He is going to use that right side to narrate a seemingly straightforward story. He is going to sing out his script to us. It won't tell us things as much as it touches our hand. He has done it before, but not in this literal sense. And it has been illogical and strange, and occasionally beautiful and transcendental. The audiovisual undercurrent of passion has defined even Anurag Basu's pre-Barfidramas: the doomed Kites had a haunting sound of madness to it, while Gangster had a monochromatic, lilting darkness to its unhinged spaces.
And lately, that passion has acquired a light to it. It's the happier kind of madness the kind that envelops his vision more than the stubborn singularity of his characters.
There's something about the way Basu dreams. You get a sense that he isn't forced to dream. His vivid cinematic canvas isn't merely a desperate reaction to the truths of this bitter world. His version of magic realism is global and regional, inspired and derivative, real and innocent, organic and scattered; his manner of storytelling isn't just another overly inventive or franchise-centric reincarnation of disillusioned realism.
He thinks on a purely sensory level of adults willfully occupying a child's dreamscape, populating an environment full of visual entendre, haphazardly organized choreography, colour-coordinated hues, circus-like chases and unevenly quirky narratives. The sounds, the whimsical imagery, the Broadway-musical language, the Chaplin-ish milieu they all belong to the sort of aesthetically aspirational universe that makes me love the movies. They make me want to be a movie.

There's something about the way Basu dreams. You get a sense that he isn't forced to dream. His vivid cinematic canvas isn't merely a desperate reaction to the truths of this bitter world.

They make me believe that even when I forget how to dream honestly, I could just enter this hopelessly hopeful world where fantastic beasts like Amlie Poulain, Walter Mitty, Ishaan Awasthi, Murphy Johnson and Max Records coexist together beneath one gingerbread roof. The cultures are many, but their soul is one.
Jagga (Ranbir Kapoor), too, lives here. He probably shares a custom-made bunk bed with Murphy (Barfi!) in one room. Both of them have partaken in farfetched adventures kick-started by a parent (Saswata Chatterjee as the father figure, in Jagga Jasoos) in peril. They have perhaps grown up sharing tales about these times in Darjeeling, Kolkata and, now, Ukhrul and Mombasa. These tales, as they often do, start with giant clock towers and boarding schools, tiny beginnings hijacked by broad thrills.
The problem with Jagga, though, is that he wants to do everything. He wants to say so much. He wants his story to have more, and go places, and go into exotic sunsets across continents, in order to straddle a younger, vaster genre. And his stutter manifests itself into a chaotically cute film bursting with ambition and voice, but missing the love. As a result, he feels he must build on and outdo the inherent artfulness of Barfi! more in scale and reach than compassion and nature.
He wants to find his nutty old man a personal journey that is tonally relevant on its own but he also has to save the world to achieve the same. This save-the-world part is unfortunately not an awkward afterthought or footnote; it's a full-blown track that steps into puddles, skirts across cartoonish spy games and tiptoes around heightened comic-book-paneled narratives of illegal arms rackets, double agents, murderous cops and two-headed kingpins (that's right).
It was always going to be messy and perhaps intentionally clumsy, especially because Jagga, as a device, belongs to the literary imagination (a desi Tintin of sorts) of someone as uninspired and wooden as Katrina Kaif(as "investigative journalist Shruti Sengupta, whose accent has of course again been justified with an annoying London-return background). But a lot of this film's otherwise-luminescent treatment details feel forgettable because of the presence of a "heroine not even in the same stratosphere of talent as Ranbir Kapoor. Kaif is actually narrating this story almost as a stage performance, based on her experiences with an enigmatic teenage detective, to a roomful of kids. There's a lot of her we have to hear. And see. She is designed to make a difference.
With her on the run with him for more than half the film, it's hard not to mentally equate her character's trademark cloddishness with the declining relevance of Kaif's lead-acting career. Whenever she has another funny accident, I found myself laughing not so much at Shruti's travails but Kaif's ability to keep derailing a flow of events that should have rested squarely on the shoulders of Kapoor or perhaps a more competent artist like Alia Bhatt or Priyanka Chopra.
There's also a clear reluctance to her chemistry with Kapoor, which might or might not work in context of their non-romantic, unrequited relationship. Again, I might be subconsciously thinking about Barfi!, and so much of its misfits-unite theme that got lost in translation here. Because the fact is that a predecessor that primarily trusted its emotional instincts has already defined our biased perceptions of Jagga's identical landscape.
For instance, there's a lovely little scene in the beginning that serves as a base for junior Jagga's curious nature. Across lyrics and sounds, again, we see him noticing a heart with two names carved into his school bench. He secretly invades the student files and identifies the address of the now-old couple. The man, who now visits his dead wife's grave every week, sees the bench transported to his garden. He sees their names. He is overwhelmed by this memory. Little Jagga looks on, a do-gooder par genre constraints. A rescuer of humanity.
I can imagine Anurag Basu, like most of us, getting very inspired by a similar scene from French visionary Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amlie. This moment is a fleeting one. It made me want to feel the same way many times over the next two hours again. It suggested the enticing possibility of Jagga operating on this intimate level of cheer.
It fitted perfectly into the heart of a plot dominated by a brave misfit simply determined to find his long-lost father; or perhaps of India's finest young male star, determined to identify a cluster of balanced sensibilities that may reward his consistent leap of faiths. Naturally, he'd affect destinies on the way, knowingly and subconsciously. And naturally, his failures even as they entail participation in a bloated, good-natured snapshot of studio-powered eccentricity will endure as strongly as his successes once did.
For a country that has virtually built its legacy of cinematic expression on the foundation of amplified song-and-dance grammar, it's odd that making a sprawling, conventional musical is considered a huge risk. It took eleven years for anyone to dare in mainstream Hindi cinema, after Shirish Kunder's misunderstood Jaan-E-Mann (2006).
Basu and Kapoor might have made the mistake of dreaming with their eyes open this time. But it isn't a fatal one. It's a passionate one. It's spectacularly committed and, most of all, hopes for another day.
Whether it's a sequel (especially after the notoriously troubled production delay) or a soul sister, I want more of this. I want cinema to look like the movies again. We spend too long trying to feel like adults. And in the pursuit of trying to dissect the "coherence and legitimacy of modern-day dreams, we might have forgotten that we need a little more of Jagga, and a little less of Jasoosi.