Jail - Bollywood Movie

Jail – A typical Madhur Bhandarkar movie. I started watching this movie rather reluctantly. Don’t get me wrong. I have always liked Bhandarkar’s work – Be it Fashion, Page 3, Chandni Bar or Corporate. But the fact that he brings out the ugly reality out of situations we hardly think about in our day-2-day lives, makes me think twice before watching his work. Especially when I am in a jolly-good mood and want to stay that way!! J Nevertheless we put it on while having dinner on a chilly night and started getting involved in it with every scene that went by.

x

I had heard & read that Neil Nitin Mukesh is a very good actor and has been doing a good job with his movies so far. But I hadn’t seen his earlier work so I was quite skeptical about him in a Bhandarkar movie especially in the first few scenes! But contrary to his boyish looks & chocolaty charm – he has justified the role quite a bit. Now that I saw his Johny Gaddar too – I agree to what I’ve heard. He is a good actor.

Manoj Bajpai didn’t have an extraordinary role to play as I had expected to see. Looking at the actor’s caliber and past potential – I thought his role didn’t justify him. Nonetheless, he did a good job.

I loved Mughda Godse’s character & work in Fashion but unfortunately she didn’t have much of a role in this movie. And also I felt her character displayed 2 very different extremes in the movie. In the beginning she was this sexy girl-friend coming from a metro and open to anything. And later on she got on to these cotton salwar-kameezes looking like a gharelu beti/bahu altogether.. 

I wasn’t sure if I liked the fact or couldn’t digest the extreme personalities depicted. Also at one point of time when Paraag (Neil Nitin Mukesh) is in the jail & facing tormenting times – Mansi (Mughda Godse) comes up and asks him whether he misses her!!!!!! ????? I found it very absurd. Arre…the poor fellow is trying to be alive in those horrifying situations & there she poses a question that doesn’t even make sense to him at that point of time!! On the other hand I felt, if Paraag communicated his feelings to Mansi better – she would have had more sense not to ask that kind of a question!!..

I am not sure if I can say I liked the movie… because I wouldn’t like to see it again. It brought out the harsh reality of the prison situations in India to an extent me & my husband almost shuddered. The scenes where it looked like more than 50 people packed in a 12x12 room was overwhelming. And to my horror most of them weren’t even defined as criminals yet. They still were waiting their first trial session. The fight for basic necessities like water & compromising with almost-non-edible food can be just too much to take. The one dialogue that Nawab (Manoj Bajpai) says in the movie – “ Insaan chahe jail ko na apnaye – Jail insaan ko apna hi leti hai” was heart-breaking & perhaps  so true for whoever has experienced that environment. It was humiliating to even see that. I wonder what it really does to people in there. Especially when they know they haven’t committed the crime for what they are in there. When something/some situation - breaks the morale, the core will of a human-being to an extent that he/she doesn’t want to live & gives up altogether – is worse than committing suicide! I cannot even imagine a situation where in I just want to give up on life – the most beautiful gift, I’ve got – and I thank God for that. A lot of scenes in the movie made me feel I am right there & looking at those lives with my own eyes. I was able to sympathize with all those people who were in there – facing the punishment – without a trial. But empathy was nowhere nearby. Even if a person has committed the crime – he/she has the right to get basic necessities in life. And looking at the movie – it really made me wonder what kind of correction can be achieved by such inhuman punishment. That cruelty in there doesn’t make a person sorry for what he/she has done. On the contrary it makes the person crueler. It somewhere gives the person the right to justify his/her misdoing and having the feeling to keep doing what he did.

After the movie was over, I kept thinking about this video a friend had shown us about Vipassana - the program that helps in looking inside us by meditating. I couldn’t help but think about the extreme contradictions between the Jail conditions shown in the movie, and the Vipassana program conducted in several jails in India & other countries. And it raised numerous questions in my head – but I guess I’ll be wandering away from the topic I started with if I start writing about that..

Another thing that I didn’t really appreciate was the way Paraag’s (Neil Nitin Mukesh) trial was conducted in the movie. After seeing so many episodes of Law & Order (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_&_Order) I just couldn’t digest the fact that the 1^st lawyer didn’t do anything substantial to fight the case. He just let it go. Agreed to whatever the judge & prosecution lawyer had to say. Didn’t fight back even once. Of course if he would have – the trial would have got solved in the sessions court itself & would never see the face of High Court – resulting in a 1 hour movie. But it completely degraded the preliminary trial depiction! There were several things he could have fought for in the earlier sessions itself – but he didn’t. And that resulted in an unnecessary longer sentence for the character. I wonder who is to be blamed more – they system or the individuals!! Of course the system consists of individuals so ultimately the blame rests on both. But what is the fault of the innocent victims!!?? The people who have to live the life of criminals for no reason at all…

I won’t say I have developed sympathy for the criminals who are getting the punishment for the horrifying crimes they do. But I definitely got a better idea of what kind of life they might be getting whether they are convicted or acquitted!! And the sad part is that people who haven’t committed crimes are treated the same way. Just like they say in Hindi – “Gehoon ke saath gun bhi pista hai” (Wheatworm often gets grounded along with Wheat)..

Concluding the movie topic – I would say, it’s a good movie. Quite intense. So don’t watch it when you are in a great mood and want to stay that way for some time!! But a must watch if you liked Chandni Bar, Fashion, Traffic Signal, Corporate or Page 3!