Jai Gangaajal: Old wind in a new Bottle

Prakash Jha has been synonymous with realistic cinema especially with political background of Bihar. Prakash Jha did a comeback of sorts with “Gangaajal” in 2003 which was based on Bhagalpur blinding incidents and which became a big hit establishing Prakash Jha as a commercial film maker….

Jai Gangaajal is an extension of his “Gangaajal” which is based on the same premise of Police Force against corrupt politicians. But the main protagonist is now a female SP Abha Mathur who gets her first big posting in Bankipur district where the local politician Babloo Pandey (Manav Kaul) and his younger brother W Pandey (Ninad Kamat) rule and their atrocities are on the high what with the local police like B N Singh (Prakash Jha debuts in the film) who are hand in gloves with the local politician. The politician is into land mafia due to which the farmers are committing suicide. Is Abha Mathur able to bring justice to the people of Bankipur is what the rest of the movie all about…

Story & Screenplay written by Prakash Jha looks like a mesh mash of his previous films. The major issue of the movie is the main protagonist Abha Mathur’s character which is the weakest in the film and the supporting characters especially Inspector B N Singh over shadows the main protagonist. Rather the character Abha Mathur looks more like a supporting character. The first half is spent on establishing the story wherein there a flashes of some good sequences but in the second half the movie just looses itself and becomes more of sequence of killing and revenge with no concrete story line. The climax is so abrupt that you feel the writer Prakash Jha just wanted to end the movie somehow letting a lot of questions unanswered. Though the screenplay has its moments but it gives just a momentary high to the screenplay and it becomes flat again. One of the biggest flaw of “Jai Gangaajal” is that there nothing new and the movie is predictable. Another flaw is its run time of 158 mins which was too long for a predictable movie….

The dialogues also do not offer anything new and does not show any newness. The dialogues just like the screenplay remains flat. Overall a very disappointing effort in writing…

Maybe the writing is weak but Priyanka Chopra as SP Abha Mathur does complete justice to her character. At times she looked lost due to weak characterization. It is Prakash Jha as B N Singh who steals the show with his realistic portrayal and cool demeanour. Manav  Kaul as Babloo Pandey again repeats his act of “Wazir”, I think somewhere he is replicating his act which may lead to him being type cast. Ninad Kamat as W Pandey gives a brilliant performance of a tyrant who will not stop to get things done his way. Ninad get the rawness of his character right, definitely one of the best performances of the movie. Rest of the ensemble cast comprising of Kiran Karmakar, Murali Sharma, Jagat Singh Solanki, Vega Tamotia, Rahul Bhatt and the child actor Ayush Khedekar do a good job but it is the writing which pulls them down…

Somehow Prakash Jha the actor over shadowed Prakash Jha the director and writer. Somewhere you would feel that Prakash Jha’s intention to make “Jai Gangaajal” was more to launch himself as an actor. His brand of movies is getting repetitive and he needs to rediscover himself. His brilliance was at its peak with “Damul”, “Mrityudand”, “Gangaajal” & “Rajneeti”; we would love to see the same Prakash Jha again…

“Jai Gangaajal” deserves Two and a Half Stars….

Movie Rating: (2.5 / 5)