Director Anurag Basu tries to make
Gone with the Wind with Tom and Jerry. He plans a mammoth three-hour
presentation of a fizz and fun film. The grammar is different and daring. Not
for the regular film goer who hates experiment. The narrative has style and a
lot of it. It is narrated in the form of three comic stories by a person who reappears
as a character and leads you to an adventure story told of illegal arms,
international smugglers caught in the eastern borders of our country abetted by
in house conspirators.
The grammar of the film is visibly and statedly different form the regular form
and would therefore find resistance form the status-quoist. I was thus not
surprised when loads of viewers were getting bored and were unwilling to go
with the experiment. It is surely an experiment worth respecting, given the
fact that the film maker comes bold and states so. He rightly realises that and
is prepared to even unabashedly declare: Yehi umar hai galti se karle mistake.
Even granted that it is a mistake it is informed and stylised.
The spokesperson (Katrina Kaif) is out reading out three comic features of
Jagga Jasoos to a delighted young audience (in contra distinction to the know
all ones in the multiplex busy with popcorn and cola). We have Jagga an
abandoned child with speaking impairment. He stammers and is taught very early
in life to get lyrical to overcome stammer. The foster father (Saswata
Chaterjee) inculcates a sense of curiosity in the little lad. The first part of
the 180 minutes is dedicated to a story that simply does not take off and is
labouriously told to show us that Jagga is an investigator in the making. Our
own Sherlock Homes. Having established his credential Anurag now takes us into
a different world. Here the familiar story of Tom and Jerry, of smugglers, good
and bad guys is told through the under stated adventure of a stammering
detective and a blundering friend (Shruti) who are initially in search of the
missing Dad Tooti Frooti – himself suffering a capacity to blunder and get into
soup. They then are hounded by an intelligence officer (Saurabh Shukla in yet another
fine performance) and finally on a wonderful eye pleasing trip to South Africa.
The story is often told in rhyme as Jagga cannot speak without stammer. Not
heavy stuff like Heer Ranjha but simple, tongue in cheek and very contemporary.
What works for the film is the amazing cinematography by Ravi Varman (remember
Barfi, Ram Leela…). What also works for the discerning is the courage to gamble
with the grammar and the style. Also, what surely works is the Ranbir magic and
the Katrina presence. All this notwithstanding this is not everyone’s film. Go
for it if you have an open mind and are not the one who cannot think beyond the
predictable menu on the card.