Not many actors in India have enjoyed hysterical popularity like Salman Khan. In fact, only a handful of stars have ever been in the same league (like Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan) in the history of 100 years of Indian cinema.
Nobody has had such a dream run of successes in recent times (not even SRK) with Wanted (2009), Dabangg 1 and 2 (2010, 2012), Ready (2011), Bodyguard (2011) and Ek Tha Tiger (2012), as Salman has had.
With the power of the Common Man being recognised to be such a great force at national level, the only thing we were all expecting from Salman ‘Bhai’ was a grand, grander and grandest film that would shatter all records set by Chennai Express (2013) and Dhoom 3 (2013).
Will Jai Ho manage to live up to these astronomical expectations? Hmm, it’s a trivial question to answer.
Firstly, all those previous hits loosely or entirely based on South Indian blockbusters have been larger than life.
This film surprisingly feels low profile and at times, you feel like you are watching a polished version of Singh Sahab The Great (ft. Sunny Deol, 2013) with added glamour minus Deol’s extremely high pitch.
The film could have been unabashedly a Salman show all over but instead it tries to be more socio-realistic in parts and attempts to preach (not entertain) us in chunks.
While this style would have been fine had the movie had more pace, thrill and some innovative situations but in absence of all those essential substances, it becomes a mild coffee with little taste or kick.
Here is a film with an assortment of subtly presented routine scenes of crime and injustice as they happen in the country resulting from the rich, influential and powerful misusing the money, muscle, inaction and apathy of the public.
[easyreview title=”JAI HO” cat1title=”Story” cat1detail=”Plain simple story void of any surprises or convolutions.” cat1rating=”2.5″ cat2title=”Performances” cat2detail=”Salman Khan packs a powerful punch with his performance, the rest of the cast do their job well.” cat2rating=”3″ cat3title=”Direction” cat3detail=”Direction is too humble and simple, falls short of expectations.” cat3rating=”2″ cat4title=”Production” cat4detail=”High production values have been Sohail Khan productions’ plus points and Jai Ho maintains the same.” cat4rating=”3″ cat5title=”Music” cat5detail=”Regular Sajid-Wajid music with one romantic melody and other popular beats.” cat5rating=”2.5″ summary=’Jai Ho was hailed as the movie likely to break past records. It’s high on its subject of the Common Man but low on overall plot and flow. Review Scores by Saurin Shah.’]
Jai Agnihotri (played by Salman) is a suspended army officer who tries to bring a wave of change through his philanthropic deeds and designs a unique formula of building a chain reaction by each person helping at least three people and so on.
What happens when Jai finds himself against the mighty and menace on his righteous path? This is what the predictable story is all about.
Jai Ho starts with a very good concept and promises to be a good movie but becomes slow and flat after some time with only the direction to blame. A. R. Murugadoss has lent his story of reasonably successful Telugu flick, Stalin (ft. Changeover, 2006), with equally good screenplay and editing.
It’s the direction of sequence of events which makes the movie a loosely linked chain of scattered scenes and situations. We have seen totally avoidable movies in recent times with big budgets, bigger stars but unbearable long stretches of boredom, which is not the case here, yet it doesn’t work wonders like Dabbang 2 which actually had little in terms of story or concept.
Jai Ho is in fact a good opportunity wasted as it’s good on technical aspects as well as story and performances but Sohail Khan’s direction makes it a good movie with good intentions, but an average entertainer.
Salman Khan excels in all departments and gives full justice to his role of common man fighting for people and for the right.
He surprises us and villains alike every time he roars (more than Ajay Devgn in Singham, 2011, where the name itself suggested ‘Lion’) in those fierce action sequences and looks like a chocolaty love boy in songs and romance (if any) scenes with newbie Daisy Shah.
Tabu gets ample screen presence and plays her sister act boldly. Daisy Shah is confident, natural and dances very well. Sana Khan gets a role much smaller than the whole hype created around her in the media.
Jai Ho is unique among movies of recent times with the most number of cameos seen ever in a film including everyone you saw last in a small budget movie, TV soap, advertisement and reality show.
On the contrary, the main villain, Danny’s role (one of the most underrated actors in Hindi films, also one of the best villains in my opinion) is as short as a guest appearance in the crowd of all these cameos.
It was shocking to see Genelia doing an extra artist kind of role, when she has ruled the South Indian film industry for so many years and has only done lead roles in her Bollywood career.
We have seen each of Salman’s previous films having had one or two chart topper songs attributing into the success of those movies and Jai Ho has ‘Photocopy’ and ‘Tere Naina’ which are already very popular among the public.
‘Nacho Re’ composed by Devi Sri Prasad is an exciting foot-tapping number and Daisy has danced her heart out on it in the movie.
There is no doubt viewers will flood into cinema halls at least in the first week to watch their favourite star and Jai Ho will be yet another hit. But since there was so much hype and expectation around the film, it inevitably falls short.
Sohail has made it with good intentions and on a noble subject showing the reality of common people, but all this is faded away with a slow execution.
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