atiyaahsan Review of Jagga Jasoos

Jagga Jasoos (2017)

Haphazard plot and unrelatable characters make for a tiresome watch...!

[1/10 · 28 February 2018]

I have always been a big fan of Anurag Basu. "Gangster" made me cry for days. I loved the intricately woven myriad of moving, personal stories in "Life in a metro", and "Barfi" gave me all the feels. So, even though I'm not really a fan of the lead pair in this flick, I still decided to give "Jagga Jasoos" a watch because of some of the positive reviews on IMDB; and I must say, they were utterly misleading, for I found the plot to be tedious, the story, confusing, the direction aimless and the movie dragging. At over 2 and a half hours, it could have benefited heavily from some much-needed editing.. Katrina Kaif was, as per expectation, dull, and uninteresting. Ranbir Kapoor was, as always, blank and inexpressive. He is utterly unconvincing as someone who suffers from a speech impediment; that is not how people with a stutter talk. I couldn't help but compare how Shahid Kapoor had portrayed the character of someone with a speech defect much more convincingly in "Kameeney". Furthermore, I'm growing increasingly weary of Ranbir Kapoor's incessant slew of one dimensional quirky characters that are supposed to be weird but likable, only they aren't. He was the same in "Tamasha," and pretty similar in "Barfi." Speaking of the latter, it seems that the director can't get out of whole mind frame of "Barfi." He has tried desperately to replicate the set design, the look, the soundtrack and the feel of the critically acclaimed flick only this one is not supported by an intriguing story, likable characters and crisp editing like the previous venture, and so what worked well for "Barfi" doesn't help here, and only works to make the plot even more confusing and meandering. Sorry Anurag, but this one was a "Swing-and-a-miss".