Jail (Bhandarkar, 2009)

[sandeep]

Synopsis by Bollywood Hungama News Network

Characters:

 Neil Nitin Mukesh as Parag Dixit
Parag seriously believes he's God's chosen child. In his mid-twenties, Parag already has everything going in his life, loves the luxuries of high living and is willing to work hard and party harder for it. He has his path carved out for him up ahead and is very impatient about getting there...until one fateful evening when everything changes!

Mugdha Godse as Maansi
Parag's love interest and an independent woman who lives life on her own terms. Maansi has never asked for the commitment yet because she would like Parag to arrive at the decision himself and she loves him too deeply to question the imminent commitment. A bond that only gets deeper and sealed across the bars because Maansi is Parag's only ray of hope outside the Jail and the reason to go on despite all hurdles. Maansi is Parag's resolve.

Manoj Bajpai as Nawaab
No one knew Parag's strength except for Nawaab. In his mid- forties, Nawaab is considered honest and humble. He has already served 10 years of his 20 year jail sentence. Very few people know Nawaab's real story and fear him for it. Compassionate yet ruthless when required, Nawaab is the conscience of the story and Parag's moral compass provided; Parag is willing to listen to him.

Arya Babbar as Kabir Mallik
In his late twenties, Kabir is a sweet faced, wily character who works for the underworld inside the jail and is their chief recruitment officer. Everyone knows who he works for, yet there is a humane side to his character that is his charm.

Rahul Singh as Abdul Ghani
In his early thirties, Ghani is a tough looking, silent, brooding type. A natural sense of superiority and brutal strength keeps him away from the herd, including Parag who he simply can't stand by face, till an unexpected camaraderie develops. He’s an under trial in jail who is often lured by the underworld inside who want to use him for their malicious interests. His only love in life is his beloved wife.

Manish Mehta as Ghalib
In his late thirties, Ghalib is a poet who does ‘shayari’ (poetry) on random things inside jail. A lovable character that is friendly with everyone, but dreams of seeing life outside Jail.

Synopsis

Parag Dixit is living a dream life with a great job and his loving girlfriend Maansi! However things take an ugly turn when after a series of unfortunate events the suddenly wakes up in jail; handcuffed and randomly beaten up by the cops.

Parag is perplexed and in a place far from his utopian life. He tries hard to face away from the ugly truth and wish it's all a bad dream but soon succumbs to the prison anarchy. The only salvation he finds is in Nawab, a convict and a warder who believes that Parag is innocent.

Soon, Parag discovers the inner mechanism and the science responsible for the wretched status inside the prison and hordes of broken hearts and shattered souls which managed to find comfort amidst the four prison walls.

He is left with a choice, to either live a life that controlled and exploited or fight against the system!

[sandeep]

Now, the review...

Nothing new... nothing new at all... story was weak, dialogue was average, music was bad...

Neil Nitin Mukesh may have been forced to bite off more than he can chew with this role, but he has done it to the best of his ability.

Mughda Godse has no role whatsoever, with very weak characterisation.

The star of the enterprise is Manoj Bajpai, who approaches his repressed character with underplayed pain.

The Jail scenes are not moving, the court scenes are not convincing. Many supporting actors are weak or annoying. Some are effective but not well developed.

We take 2-3 scenes with us from the film, which is not what one is looking for from a Bhandarkar product.

2/5

[kaytee]

Oh oh I was planning to go for it today coz some friends gave it glowing reviews compared to APKGK.

[sandeep]

I heard terrible reviews for APKGK. My cousin who sat through both these said Ajab... was worse than Jail... and Jail was bad. But lots of people enjoyed Ajab... as well... so i will watch it.

[kaytee]

Well I watched and came out of the cinema with nothing that I didn't already know. Neil Nitin Mukesh fails to emote appropriately, Ghose has no clue what the fuck is happening, all she keeps saying is "it's ok", Bajpai and Babbar are the only 2 who actually look like they can act but that doesn't help the movie at all mainly because of the worst dialogue ever written. Bhandarkar always chooses a good subject but can't make actors act or write proper dialogues, the only movie where he made it all work was Chandni Bar.

[sandeep]

yup like I said, nothing new at all... shariq gave APKGK 3.5 stars, I guess I will watch it now!

[shariqq]

the only movie where he made it all work was Chandni Bar.

I liked Corporate and Page 3 also, for their insider-view and fictional revelations, and some good performances in the former.

[kaytee]

Page 3 looked so fake and put up, honestly he cant make the actors act at all. It all looks so put up. Corporate was decent because Bipasha Basu really worked hard for it and gave a sincere performance. I have not seen Traffic Signal or Fashion so can't really comment about those. Dont think I will bother with them either.

[shariqq]

I haven't seen Traffic Signal. Fashion was torture. I wasn't too excited about it, but am going to skip Jail based on your comments.

Madhur Bhandarkar is only about "unveiling", but really, he's highly overrated. His success-rate is dismal.

[kaytee]

True that Shariq, have you seen the movie Aan? OMG!! What a mess?

[shariqq]

Aan: Men at work? Nope. I had no idea that he had made it... I just heard so many bad things I never bothered with it.

[safra23]

True that Shariq, have you seen the movie Aan? OMG!! What a mess?

I so agree with you KT on Aan, no storyline, no worthy acting, nothing, Shatrugan Sinha and Akshey Kumar in a movie had even a non-movie buff like me interested, but was very utterly disappointed.

Traffic Signal & Corporate I thoroughly enjoyed, even though Mr Bhandarakar is all about unveiling, his portrayal of  the stories and what the characters face on a daily basis was pretty unique in these movies.