Prakash Jha has turned out into a director whose films have become synonyms of pretense and nothing more. Jai Gangajal is no different. Jai Gangajal is a sequel to Gangajal which brought him maximum fame. This time he has picked up Priyanka Chopra as the main lead probably thinking that the film can possible become a great illustration of empowering women. Unfortunately, it is not.
The story of Jai Gangajal is set in a village which is the land of lawlessness. It is run by the merciless and helped by corrupt ones. Priyanka Chopra plays Abha Mathur who fights against the local MLA in the film. The movie looks so much like modified version of Gangajal where Ajay Devgan ‘s place is given to Priyanka Chopra keeping the order of events is same.
The movie shows a bunch of merciless acts to show the ruthlessness of the rulers so that the viewer is petrified. However, there was nothing new and it has been seen since decades together. Mr. Jha tries to manipulate the audience several times with an artificial drama. For example, he expects us to cheer when a boy hits a man and succeeds. Such scenes and concepts were done and dusted before.
Priyanka Chopra, on the other side looks comfortable in the dress but not in the role. She was very ordinary with hardly anything to talk about. She tries too hard to be that gutsy cop, but hardly effective. However, surprisingly it’s Prakash Jha himself who appears in a negative role who makes the maximum impact in the film. He was exceptional. One sincere advice to him would be to stop making films like these and start acting.
Apart from Jha, no other actor has made any significant impact in the film. Not just the script but the music also tries to be desperate. Clearly you can feel that the sound is trying to elevate a feeling which was not even there at the first place.
The only good part of the film is that it shows some real problems that farmers and the underprivileged face in the villages because of the power held in the local rulers. These could have been shown in a different way than just creating a plastic drama out of the scenes. Some dialogues are good while most of them desperately try to lack a punch in it but fail miserably. The lectures are unending and we can predict most of them. Lines which are like ‘Cops have become prostitutes’ are so many.
Apart from too many number of clichés the movie is lengthy. It is dragged to the core. Running up to almost 160 minutes, this movie is a burden in all aspects – time and mind.
