Review: 'Jhoom Barabar Jhoom'

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom

Cast: Abhishek Bchchan, Bobby Deol, Preity Zinta, Lara Dutta
Direction: Shaad Ali Sahgal
Rating: **

There is style. And then there is caricature. And when the latter overtakes the former all the cleverness of the characters and the situations they find themselves in, fall flat. That’s what happens with ‘Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’ directed by Shaad Ali Sahgal.

Obviously aimed at the youth, it gets as camp as needed and then some more, and that ruins the effect. In the first half when Ricky Thukral (Abhishek Bachchan in Bunty mode again) and Alvira Khan (Preity Zinta dumbing down to Babli) are trying so hard to spin a plausible yet out of the world story, it just gets convoluted and confusing.

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Ricky and Alvira bump into each other in the café at Waterloo station (some justice in that perhaps) as each is waiting for the train from Birmingham, which is an hour late. Each suspects the other is flirting, so they both spin a tale of waiting for their fiancé and fiancée respectively.

Asked to describe their love story they both wing it till the stories get more and more out of control. Thankfully, at this point the interval rolls along and the sutradhar (Amitabh Bachchan, who also opened the proceedings) comes along with the title song which is the best part of the film.

After interval the film picks up pace when Ricky and Alvira have to now produce their said fiancés and take part as opponents in a dance competition when actually their hearts beat for each other. Most of the second half is taken up with different versions of the ‘Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’ song giving the protagonists an opportunity to do what they excel in (dance) and saving them the embarrassment of acting.

One wonders what has gone wrong with Yash Raj Films. While one is not doubting their marketing chutzpah one is beginning to see stories taking second and third place to packaging and star power. Set in environs that are alien to most viewers, their concentration seems entirely on the viewer to whom overseas might well be home. And yet everyone around the protagonist seem to be perfectly comfortable in Hindi. Quite baffling this.

Abhishek Bachchan, reprising several similar roles that he has done in the past, walks away with the acting honours, while Bobby, let down by an awful role, rolls in at a distant second. As for the girls Preity and Lara, if they had paid as much attention to their performance as they did to their grooming, they’d have aced it. But they didn’t.

Is Shaad Ali stuck in a groove? He needs to do something radically different to prove he can think out of the ‘Bunty Aur Babli’ box.

The saving grace then, is Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s dance music, specially the title song, in all its versions.

indumirani@gmail.com

Rating

Outstanding:*****
Very Good: ****
Good: ***
Average: **
Poor: *