Review: Jayeshbhai Jordaar
Jayeshbhai Jordaar, written and directed by debutant Divyang Thakkar is a firecracker of a tale, but somewhere in the middle loses its spark. The film attempts to use humor and satire to question social issues like gender stereotypes, disparity, and female foeticide.
Set in the fictional town of Pravingarh, a small hamlet in Gujarat, Jayesh (Ranveer Singh) is a father of a 9-year-old girl (played by the terrific Jia Vaidya). His young wife Mudra (Shalini Pandey), with whom he’s been together for more than a decade, is pregnant again after six miscarriages. Jayesh’s parents: the patriarch sarpanch, Boman Irani, and his wife Yashoda, (Ratna Pathak Shah) pray for it to be a boy. However, the doctor conveys to Jayesh that that isn’t the case. This has clearly happened before as well. Jayesh hatches a plot for him to run away, via a hand-drawn map, with Jia and Mudra, just to help his wife deliver the baby.
Ranveer Singh in a still from the film.
The first act of the film is engaging. The story is well underway by the time the film begins. We have been hatched right in-media-res, where events have already happened and plots have already been hatched. We eagerly wait for the next turn of events.
I also liked the fact how old traditions and the changing of generations have been portrayed. The cell phone plays a major role in conveying why Jayesh is different from his parents and elders. Where women have to still drape their heads in front of elders, we have 9-year-old girls streaming events live on Facebook. Education aside, Jayesh’s daughter has exposed him to the world of Google and Youtube (Alexa is ‘Sarla’ here), which seem to have expanded his mental horizons beyond his family’s regressive environment.
However, towards the second half, the film begins to lose its spark. The screenplay seems to be too overcrowded with social concerns wrapped in the comedy genre that the writing does not even display a depth of understanding of the subjects it has chosen to cover.
In one scene the screenplay and film wants to be funny as it confronts a deadly serious issue, on the next, it is all earnest and preachy.
The intent is noble but juvenile execution and bland writing make it impossible even for someone like Ranveer to salvage the script. The film, more obsessed with offering quirky entertainment, fails to address the gravity of the issue it addresses.
Ranveer, however, has done a fantastic job, of getting into character. Away from his testosterone self, he is careful not to generalize the Gujarati community by playing a caricature-like character. He pulls off the script with ease. His actions, dressing sense, and the way he performs all speak volumes.
His soft heart relationship with his wife is also beautifully portrayed. For instance, he pretends to beat her up in the bedroom to appease the father; they have a blast play-acting behind closed doors. At night, he also secretly teaches her how to drive a car.
While the character of the hero has facets that definitely fascinate, the other people orbiting around him are wobbly presences who merely just support the protagonist.
Shalini Pandey, plays the same ‘mute-wife’ she played in Arjun Reddy. Even the patriarch Boman Irani, is not given a full character arc. The characters of actors like Deeksha Joshi, who is quite well known in the Gujarati film circle, were also not squeezed out entirely. The only supporting character that is given an arc is Ratna Pathak Shah. However, her arc, where she comes to revolt against her husband in the end falls within the same trope of every other female-led film.
In one scene, a Bengali woman holds a knife in her hand as she says ‘Ami Monjulika’, which makes absolutely zero sense is pushing the narrative forward.
Overall, the film gets carried away by quirky entertainment. Ranveer’s monologue on pappi (kiss) comes at such an inappropriate moment in the film that it evokes unintentional laughter. The moment is also stretched so much that eventually, it loses its charm.
The makers of Jayeshbhai, most of them debutants, have put up an entertainment-heavy film, with lots of laughs here and there, but somewhere lacks the seriousness of the issue it portrays to address.
