Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Allow me to be as dramatic as the courtroom scenes in Jazbaa: it isn’t an open and shut case when it comes to declaring the former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan the sole draw to her first film in five years.
With Jazbaa, directed by Sanjay Gupta, there’s a good chance that the supporting cast (Shabana Azmi and Irrfan Khan) have walked away with all the glory, instead of the stunning lead.
As always, Rai Bachchan looks ravishing and ravaged in equal parts, but her colleagues Khan and Azmi lend an unexpected gravitas to this thought-provoking, but a little too stylised whodunit.
On paper, it may seem like the ball is always in Rai Bachchan’s court since the film was about her character — high-profile lawyer Anuradha Verma — and her battle to free an accused rapist. Her daughter has been taken hostage and the kidnappers want her to defend the hardened criminal. From the beginning, it’s been indoctrinated that Verma’s courtroom arguments are as lethal as her stilettos. The first few scenes are a homage to her beauty (she looks marvellous) along a virtuous mother (she’s a supermum to Shanaya, no arguments there), while the next few scenes are all about her shrieking and shuddering in her attempt to appease her daughter’s kidnappers. Like any Gupta film — known for glorifying cops and criminals, as in Shootout At Wadala — Jazbaa, too, gets weighed down by cheesy lines and unintended plasticity. For instance, Khan who plays a cheeky, rakish cop, utters lines such as “treat sleep like a lover. If you don’t take time for it, it abandons you”. He downs a potent beverage for better effect. The result? It’s grating and even a superb talent like Khan cannot redeem it.
Or, when Rai Bachchan angrily declares to the smirking, unrepentant rapist “that a mother in anguish is fighting his case, and not a lawyer” — there’s a hollow ring to it all.
And when an intense scene of an anguished mother running towards her daughter’s captors is shown in slow-motion, you know that slick has won over soul. It makes you wonder if the director chose swagger over matter.
However, all’s not lost in this one.
Jazbaa’s taut pace and streamlined approach towards the second half glosses over these glaring inadequacies. The climax is sharp and unexpected. And all actors, including veteran actor Atul Kulkarni, who plays Anuradha’s opponent in court, pack a punch there.
The whodunit also addresses the issue of violence against women, in an entertaining manner. The film looks at how rape cases are shoddily handled by Indian courts and dwells briefly on how a manipulative criminal can walk away scot-free if aided by a smart lawyer. The thrilling bits are saved for the last in this succinct thriller, making you wonder why the bits about retribution, justice, crime and punishment were not explored in depth.
Unwanted attention is paid, instead, on capturing the beauty of Mumbai — a bustling metropolis filled with skyscrapers and slums in sepia tones — and on Rai Bachchan’s bloodshot eyes (read: anguish). The wicked climax of Jazbaa makes it a satisfying watch, but not a watertight thriller.
Don’t miss it:
Film: Jazbaa
Cast: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Irrfan Khan, Shabana Azmi and Jackie Shroff
Director: Sanjay Gupta
3 out of 5 stars
