Review: Watch 'Jail' if you’re in the mood for a documentary

Film: Jail (U/A)
Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Manoj Bajpai, Mugdha Godse, Arya Babbar, and others
Rating: **

Scene one: hero enters jail. Last scene: hero is set free. There is not much in Jail in between. Except for a few interesting scenes, some decent performances, and the Madhur Bhandarkar touch, the film requires a lot of effort to be watched.

The director, though, lends his typical style to the proceedings by presenting the film in a manner that has become synonymous with Bhandarkar films — hard-hitting scenes, some very real characters, and the portrayal of a world that is not always spoken about in films otherwise.

But although his earlier films explored themes that weren't touched upon in cinema otherwise — the Page 3 culture, the life of street urchins, and the fashion world, for example — here he picks up a setting that has been explored in quite a few films before, Ek Hasina Thi being a more prominent name that springs to mind.

Parag Dixit's life is just about looking good, with a steady career and girlfriend (Godse) to boot, when he is implicated in a drug case. His flatmate Keshav Rathod is the one involved in the trafficking and is shot by police while travelling with Parag (Neil).

Found with a bag full of cocaine, which actually belongs to Keshav, Parag has no way of proving he is not guilty and lands up in jail. From there on, the film is about the characters he meets in jail, their day-to-day lives, and the way he copes with life in prison.

Jail then becomes a checklist of various crimes a person can be in jail for: match fixing, fraud, murder, and extortion. There is also a spoilt rich brat, in for running over a group of people under the influence of alcohol, Joe D’Souza a la Alistair Perreira, and a Mr Ghosh, who looks suspiciously like Binayak Sen, in for links with Naxals.

Even though Bhandarkar has managed to present the film well, it is in the writing that he falters. In fact, you can't help but wonder why he chose to make a film with such a single-track screenplay, when he could have opted for some more twists and turns, given the setting. Also, the film drags on and on about the life of inmates, which gets to you after a point and makes the film look like a documentary.

The only 'different' thing about Jail is the end where Parag, when set free, is shown to have not changed as a human being even after his two-year stay in prison, as in other films where a jail term usually leads to crime (Satya, for example). But it takes so long for the film to get there that you don't care much whether Parag is set free. All you want is to be set free yourself.

While Mugdha is just about okay, Neil Nitin Mukesh tries too hard in scenes that require him to 'perform'. Bhandarkar, however, gets it right with the casting, as Neil looks the well-bred, out-of-place prisoner he is meant to be.

Manoj Bajpai plays Nawab, the mentor to Parag, in a manner much subtler than you usually associate with the actor. The film, though, loses out on account of being so very subtle and without life. Watch Jail only if you are in the mood for a documentary on prisoners.