Cast:
Salman Khan, Tabu, Daisy Shah, Naman Jain, Mohnish Behl, Danny Denzongpa, Ashmit
Patel, Yash Tonk, Bruna Abdullah, Nadira Babbar, Mahesh Thakur, Resham Tipnis, Sunil
Shetty, Mahesh Manjrekar, Sana Khan, Mukul Dev, Santosh Shukla
Director:
Sohail Khan
An
ex army official (not exactly your common man), who in the past had been
removed from the Indian Army for ignoring his superior’s command and
undertaking an extra step to save civilians from the terrorists, not to
mention, risking his own life a great deal in the process, lives his present by
assisting the civilians in myriad ways possible and saving them from all
possible modes of harassment. Ask him for any sort of assistance (even taking a
kid to the loo) and he is there. Trouble anyone in any manner (even pushing off
a street urchin), and he is there. Thank him for his help, and he asks you to
help three other people instead, and tell them each to do the same! This is the
protagonist of the movie ‘Jai Ho’ i.e. your very own Salman Khan, aka the
‘bhai’ of the masses.
‘Jai
Ho’ is the official remake of Telugu film ‘Stalin’ (2006) and it intends to
give social service message and impart noble teaching. The philanthropist in
Salman Khan completely takes over his character, and when he emotes, the
following seem real and genuine - the restlessness and pain towards suffering
of others, frustration of not being able to change the system, anger and hatred
towards the bad guys, ruthless bashing of the villains etc.
Apart
from this, any of his other scenes, or even the rest of the movie has no depth,
meaning or connectivity! It seems that the presence of the superstar was taken
a wee bit too much for granted and as such no real effort was put towards the
making of a good movie! Even the fitness of the superstar (supposed to be his
primary appeal) was not deemed necessary for all the scenes. Barring a few last
minute scenes, Salman Khan appears overweight (read prominent double chin) and
tired (read puffy eyes) in most of the movie. Still he manages to look better
than the rest of the cast!
Casting
is purely whimsical or, you can say that going by the pulse of ‘Jai Ho’, it mostly
seems to be an act of good deed by the actor-producer brother duo (Salman and
Sohail). They apparently fulfilled their promises made to various individuals
and groups, of giving them the opportunity to act or dance in their film! Apart
from that, they seem to have pulled in a great chunk of their friends and
loyalists to act in the movie. Be prepared to see an army of known as well as
long forgotten popular faces (both from Bollywood and TV) to appear one by one
in the film. Tabu seems to be the only well thought of case of casting. She
well befits the role of a righteous, no nonsense and strong sister. The
debutant Daisy Shah has no defining role as such but a couple of dancing songs,
and therein she has performed pretty well. The surprise package of the movie is
Bruna Abdullah. Till her last scene, you expect her to break into an item
number, which never happens!
If
you belong to that strata of the common man that is heavily weighed down by the
system, who wants to rebel and retaliate badly but cannot dare to do so for the
fear of being subjected to further atrocities that would be thrown upon by the
corrupt authorities to maintain their power and clout, you will enjoy the movie
because with every snarl that Salman will roar and with every punch that he will
throw, you will feel a step closer to the sense of closure for all your
sufferings. Also, if you are a die hard Salman fan, you will enjoy the movie, as
he is present in most of the frames. But if you are a serious movie enthusiast,
who looks for logic, technique, newness and performance in a movie, be prepared
to experience the severe messing up of your sense of movie watching.
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