Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Jai Ho… Salman Khan’s Sunny Deol Act

Jai Ho has been the most anticipated movie of 2013 and 2014 as it was announced to be released initially at the end of 2013 by Sohail Khan under the name of “Sher Khan” and later as “Mental”, but the name was finalized as “Jai Ho”. The movie is a remake of Stalin (a Telugu film inspired by “Pay It Forward”). The movie has a lot to offer to the common man “the aam janta”. It has drama, action, romance, comedy, weird songs, Salman’s very own dancing style and bollywood masala.


Jai Ho revolves around Jai Agnihotri (Salman Khan), an ex-army officer who was court-martialed because of his bravery and not following the orders of his superior in command Major Arjun (Suniel Shetty). Jai runs a motor garage and with his friends Babu (Yash tonk) and Sumit (Ashmit Patel) helps the aam janta (the common people) by saving them from the attiyachaar of bad people. Accidently, Jai comes across the malicious politician Dashrat Singh (Danny Denzongpa) and his family of pitiless power-driven scoundrels (Mukul Dev, Sana Khan and Haroon Qazi). Rest is the usual story of good winning over the evil.

The best thing about Jai Ho is that it has a cast which viewers would see after a hiatus. Even for brief roles some big names of their times have been casted. Like Sharad Kapoor, Mukul Dev, Aditya Panscholi, Nauheed Cyrusi, Vikas Bhalla, Tulip Joshi, Genelia Deshmukh, and Sameer Khakar along with Tabu have blessed with roles after a long gap in this film.

After watching Jai Ho, one can easily understand that it’s no one else but Salman Khan who can effortlessly step into the shoes of Sunny Deol. The action sequences shown in Jai Ho are larger than life, the way Salman bhai flies, fights and twists and turns goons in the air can only be matched with the class which Sunny Deol or South Indian movies have.

Jai Ho offers a lesson as well and that is “do good to 3 people in life and ask them to continue this chain”. The concept is theoretically right but practically is as close to as having “ideal gas” in reality.


As far as the performances are concerned, it’s like all Salman Khan movies; a Salman Khan enterprise. He fights likes a tiger and he roars like a lion (which at times sounded quite funny as well). But if you are a die-hard fan of Salman bhai it is digestible, something of similar idiocy would have caused a lot of giggles in the cinema halls – if it would be someone else. Tabu is like always, composed, effective and effortless. She sparks wherever the high voltage scenes demanded the flash. Denny is perfect in his character and leaves an impact. Daisy Shah dances really well and looks gorgeously sexy in all the songs. Nadira Babbar (Salman’s mom) overacts and is very loud. There isn’t much for Aditya Panscholi but he has strong screen presence and his expressions are worth noticing. Mukul Dev is remarkable, so is Haroon Qazi (debut).

Sameer Khakar (the drunkard) has returned to the celluloid after a very long time. He gives a noteworthy performance. This actor should be given more roles (Parinda was one of his finest movies). The kid portraying Salman’s nephew Naman Jain is a natural talent, this is his forth movie (after Chillar Party, Raanjhana and Bombay Talkies) and he is simply a sweetheart. Santosh Shukla (Manik) leaves a mark. Sudesh Lahiri manages to bring smile on audiences’ faces. Pulkit Samrat adds freshness and delivers a very calculated performance.

If you are planning to watch this movie then leave your brain at rest and imagine you are going to watch a movie with a lot of dhishoom-dhamakas / fight sequences, flying bikes, one man beating up the entire nation.
Jai Ho is literally a new-age version of “One Man Army” and a tribute to Sunny Deol’s “Dhhai Kilo ka haath”.

I rate it 3 out of 5 on the basis of performances, Salman-power and some emotional scenes.

This post was initially posted at Express Tribune's Blog, under my name.

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