Saturday, January 25, 2014
Jai Ho
Fists Of Fury
If it weren’t for Salman Khan’s star draw, a film like Jai Ho would have
been hooted out of the cinemas after one show. So it the film does well, it’s
all credit to his fan following; the director, Sohail Khan, could have handed
the reins to the action director (Ravi Verma) and gone on vacation. The bits in between the action set pieces are
haphazard and ridiculous, making a mess of the sweet Hollywood drama Pay It
Forward.
Salman Khan has built his recent blockbuster star image on remakes of
over the top Southern films (this one is a Stalin rehash), which splurge on extravagant fight scenes,
picturesque locations and noisy dance numbers, but are resolutely old-school in
every other department.
In this film, Jai (Khan) is an army officer with a past. Not sure what
he does, perhaps runs a garage (because there are scenes of him tinkering with
cars), but is always ready to bash up wrongdoers. The film opens with him
thrashing goons who tried to kidnap a girl and every few minutes, he gets a
reason to do a repeat, till the predictable shirt ripping climax hand-to-hand
duel with a snarling baddie, cast only for six-pack abs to match Khan’s.
Jai has a mother (Nadira Babbar), a sister (Tabu) who has an
odious brat of a son (Naman Jain), a love interest (Daisy Shah) and several
random friends and relatives hanging around, only so some TV stars could get a
big screen appearance.
He stops his flying fists to propagate the pay it forward idea, makes
some “aam admi” speeches, meant to get applause, and the wandering mess finally
ends at the doorstep of the most predictable Hindi film villain—the evil
politician (Danny Denzongpa) and his wicked brood. The politician also has a
seemingly endless supply of goons, who keep attacking and getting whipped by
Jai.
Even with its social issue pretensions, Jai Ho is just plain awful. Salman Khan fans may flock to see it,
they may be lacking in cinema literacy or taste, but let’s hope they are at
least intelligent enough to get bored.
Labels: Cinemaah
