Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story Review

There is Bollywood a genre of cinema that deals with bhais. Often it is opportunity to pan the underbelly of Mumbai: drug, guns, sex, crime usually in a brazen, brooding pattern. Here the bad guys are the do gooders. They are invariably sucked into the vortex of the whirlpool of crime and violence. Often the script is blood drenched, smoke filled, noise packed. This time we are back on the streets of Mumbai but thankfully without most of the above. Instead we have debutant Director Vinni Markaan taking about two hours of your time with a RGV – Raj Kumar Hirani matrix. Stated simply it fails to work the magic. The idea to deal with the bhais in a comical fashion is great and actually Raj Kumar Hirani has achieved a slot of fame for himself doing that, but that requires a lot more than just a few one liners and the lingua franca of Mumbai.
Simran (Neha Sharma) is on her way to Mumbai in search of a creer and her dreams. As a preface you are told that if you fail in the city it is not because of the city but because of a manufacturing defect in you. Simran therefore has to make it big (disproportionate to what she wears, is what she dreams). Her trailer is fine, the script sours. So after a good job and nice set of friends, E. Raja spoils the party with the 2G scam. The market goes crumbling and takes with it her friends, job and home. She now moves into a small tenement. She finds a lazy small time Bhai in Jayatibhai (Vivek Oberoi) for a neighbour. A few chanced encounters and the chemistry blossoms. They are contrasting persons. She is educated, suave, dreams big, willing to work, industrious. He is uneducated, crude, realistic, lazy and ever willing to procrastinate or delegate. Even his group leader Altaf (Zakr Hussain) does not trust him with anything serious. It would have been delightful to see the contrasts attract. The script however has no time for such niceties. On the other hand we have cliché after cliché, where the guys is with the goons trying to out smart some one or the other. We have the damsel in distress. She is on an eternal job hunt with scanty clothes and buckets full of hope. The Mumbai monsoon arrives every time she has a call letter. You know that the two are bound to make it. You are looking at the pot holes in the luv story and in only engaging factor in this journey is the one liners – and they are aplenty.
The film lacks sustainable content. The cast lacks conviction. Poor Vivek Oberoi does everything he can to add credibility. Your heart goes out to him. He is truly the mainstay – nay the only guy in or about the movie worth talking about. Poorly edited and unimaginatively shot, this luv story is built just on anda bhurji. Every time the guy tries a smart one and is caught in the act he ends up saying: Joking Re. the audience in the collective would well respond: PJ Re. With a script as convincing as the script of a radio jockey this joke is truly a poor one. L. Ravichander.