Film review: Alia Bhatt in 'Jigra' delivers a strong act in a weak film
While Alia delivers a standout performance in 'Jigra,' the film's weaknesses dim its shine
The sibling duo in Jigra, played by Alia Bhatt and Vedang Raina, has never caught a break in life. From witnessing their father’s plunge to his own death as kids to growing up on the crumbs thrown by their benevolent uncle, these two share a bond strengthened by childhood trauma. Bhatt, as the fierce Satya Anand, is the household fixer, while Vedang’s Ankur Anand is the protected and gullible sibling. Satya is also wary of their wealthy, bratty cousin, who’s gotten close to her brother. But a business trip to a Southeast Asian island with zero tolerance for drugs lands them in deep trouble, and it’s now up to Ankur’s sister to come to the rescue. It then morphs into a prison break drama.
While the premise will remind you of Alan Parker’s Oscar-winning Midnight Express, about an American student arrested in Turkey for attempting to smuggle drugs out of the country, Jigra is far more emotionally charged because every attempt is being made to showcase Bhatt as a Bachchan-like indefatigable hero. But don’t be fooled by her fragile appearance. From the outset, we are told that she has nerves of steel and will obliterate anyone who threatens her small ecosystem. She plays rough, and there’s an interesting dialogue where she says that she never claimed she was an ethical or good person; she’s just someone who will go to any lengths to save her younger brother from his harrowing death sentence. A bewildered and scared Ankur awaits his strict electrocution-in-chair end, but his sister swoops down from India to save his skin.
While Bhatt shines in the pathos-ridden scenes, Vedang Raina—who makes his theatrical debut with this grim prison-break drama—tries to hold his own. But he’s coltish compared to Bhatt, who is far more skilled as an artist. A scene where they both are in a tight embrace, breaking down at sea, shows a vast difference between their calibers. Your heart goes out to Bhatt, who channels trauma and tears with searing intensity. But that’s not enough to save this occasionally engaging yet middling drama.
Upon learning about her beloved brother’s arrest, Bhatt enters an unfamiliar country and slowly befriends other Indians whose loved ones are in that same prison. Manoj Pahwa plays a former gangster, now toothless, whose son is awaiting a death sentence just like Bhatt’s brother. After a strong trauma-bonding episode, they all plot to get their beloved tribe out of jail.
At every point, it’s drilled into us that this prison is clean and sanitized, and the guards stick to the rulebook, unless provoked. In one of the scenes, Ankur questions a guard's authority and earns the wrath of a guard of Indian origin, who unleashes his brutal side. However, the scenes set in prison look impossibly contrived, and just like its clinically sterile environment, the harrowing scenes of Ankur being wrongly imprisoned fail to move you. And that’s a shame.
There’s also no denying that Bhatt is a consummate actress with a great command over her craft. But positioning her as a Karate Kid was a bit of a stretch. The action scenes, especially the hand-to-hand combat with her new friend Muthu (Rahul Ravindran), look visceral and raw, but somehow it just doesn’t add up. How can this slip of a girl take on a trained former police officer like Muthu? This question often teases your mind. It’s not to say that the action is not earnest, but somehow the film fails to exploit its true potential. The premise of a young boy wrongly incarcerated for drug peddling in a strict foreign country makes for great viewing on paper, but it does not translate well.
The action scenes are riveting, but the portions set in prison, where Vedang’s character bonds with his inmates who plot to escape, can get tedious. The saving grace? The chemistry between seasoned actors Pahwa and Bhatt, who are partners in crime, adds an interesting twist. There's some smart writing in the movie too, but it's too few. A scene where Bhatt asks her imprisoned brother if he made new friends and her joking that it's not a summer camp, hit home.
But those nuggets of humour and tragedy hits you rarely. There’s not much meat holding this movie together. The climax is also filled with some ludicrous twists. How can a bunch of untrained Indians penetrate a high-security prison with such ease is something you will have to make peace with as a viewer. Suspending belief as you see Bhatt steamroll the prison walls with her truck comes with the territory. Many exaggerated and over-the-top scenes feel far-fetched and are borderline ludicrous. While you do marvel at a sister’s pledge to extract her brother from all bullies and evil, the movie doesn’t hold as much water as their watertight bond.