Review: JAI HO @AMC Star Fitchburg 18

Jai Ho (Sohail Khan, India, 2014, 150 min)

Limited run @ AMC Star Fitchburg 18»

Dating back to Mother India (1957), if not earlier, many Bollywood films invoke an ideal India which all its citizens should aspire to realize. These films then draw a distinct contrast between this ideal and the reality that is often the result of corrupt businessmen, gangsters, public leaders, and politicians who seem to have forgotten the common folk and the common good.

This theme continues in the latest Salman Khan blockbuster, Jai Ho, in which Kahn portrays a man who has a simple plan help the common man transcend the corruption around him.

Your response to how Jai Ho handles the theme, however, will depend on your capacity to handle a wide range of tones, from broadly comic to brutally violent, that is typical for Bollywood masala films but less familiar to American audiences. The film certainly pulls out all the stops and at times can be wildly entertaining; but the network of connections between many minor characters are often a bit too tenuous to sustain much narrative momentum beyond the action scenes and the music. For me, there was more than enough pure entertainment through the music and the often audacious fight and chase scenes to keep me engaged—but then again I expect and like this kind of thing from Bollywood. If you’re expecting a more traditional plot structure, you might find yourself frustrated.

Like many Bollywood blockbusters, Jai Ho is a Hindi-language remake of a recent successful Tollywood (or Telugu-language) film, in this case A. R. Murugadoss’s Stalin (2006). “Jai ho” roughly translates as “Let victory prevail,” and the film plays on this phrase by naming Khan’s character Jai. (You might recall that a song by A.R. Rahman also titled “Jai Ho” appeared on the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, so it is a familiar phrase.) The film presents Jai as a combination of the common man and Superman; he protects his neighborhood with super-fighting powers and celebrates it with super-dancing prowess. After several melodramatic sequences that at first don’t seem to tie together very clearly, Jai proposes a plan (an “ideology,” as the subtitles describe it) in lieu of receiving thanks for once again saving the day. Instead of thanking him, he asks those he has helped to help three other people in some way, and ask those three people to help three more. As this plan moves forward, the narrative threads start to weave together as Jai ends up influencing many lives directly and indirectly.

JaI’s ideology appeals to the notion of the common good of an ideal India; that ideology is contrasted with a corrupt political party, whose leading family seems to be the direct or indirect cause of every problem that Jai’s chain of assistance tries to solve. At almost every turn, the corrupt family’s selfishness and quest for power has unforeseen consequences. For example, after politician’s daughter orders a roadblock so that the family caravan can travel with ease, the subsequent traffic jam results in a string of events leading to the suicide of a young girl that Jai had befriended. It takes a while for the blame for these problems to reach back to the corrupt family, but fortunately within the logic of the film all can be solved with a good old fashioned beat down (or two, or three).

Kahn has an interesting screen presence because he is so muscular and overpowering in the fight sequences but moves so effortlessly in the dance sequences. Some of his button-down shirts seem to be “extra-smedium,” with the second and third buttons struggling for survival against his bulging chest. He also can shift quickly between big-eyed charming to crazy-eyed threatening, which helps the audience transition between some pretty abrupt shifts in tone. On a few occasions in the film, the tone shifts from a joyous musical sequence to a very violent action sequence. Somehow we don’t mind if Kahn is guiding us along the way.

Like a few other recent Bollywood films I’ve seen at AMC Star Fitchburg 18, the strongest musical sequences come early, and the violence gets more extreme as the film progresses. One would think that the producers would attempt to one-up themselves across the arc of the film so that both the musical numbers and the action sequences get more ambitious as the film builds momentum. But that only seems true of the action, and the more elaborate choreography is front-loaded. My favorite music sequence happens early (again after an abrupt change in tone from an action sequence) as Jai leads his whole neighborhood in a chorus of “Jai Jai Jai Jai Ho” (so not to be confused with the Rahman track). The sequence dynamically synthesizes the call for an ideal India, including some interesting lyrics which point out that women should not be threatened by rape, referencing recent news events (when is the last time you’ve heard something like that in an American pop song, or Hollywood dance sequence?). There is nothing subtle about any of this, but you grant it that as long as it remains so entertaining.   

The film would make an interesting double bill with another Bollywood playing on campus this week, Deewaar (okay, not a double bill on the same night due to running times, but watch both of them this week if you can). Deewaar (1975) adheres more closely to the Mother India template by contrasting the ideal India and corrupt India through two brothers—one a cop, one a gangster. In many ways Deewaar is the stronger film because, unlike the corrupt political family in Jai Ho, the corrupt brother is not completely vilified, and the degree of sympathy we have for him makes the dramatic conflict much more interesting.

Edit: This post originally stated that Deewaar would play at the Union South Marquee Theater for one screening on Wednesday, February 5 at 7:00pm. This information came from an outdated WUD Film Google Calendar feed. We apologize for the error.

Meanwhile, Jai Ho will continue at AMC Star Fitchburg 18 at least until Thursday (at this point there seems to be only one screening per day, at 8:10pm). If you can’t catch it this week, below I have listed a few Salman Khan films currently streaming on Netflix.

Posters and Synopses from The Movie Database

Ek Tha Tiger (Kabir Kahn, India, 2012, 133 min)»

Ek Tha Tiger is a Bollywood Romantic Thriller film starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles. Salman plays an undercover agent of the Indian intelligence agency RAW.

Dabangg 2 (Arbaaz Khan, India, 2012, 125 min)»

Salman Khan is back as Chulbul Pandey in Dabangg 2, the second adventure in one of the most successful franchises of all time in Indian cinema. In Dabangg 2, Chulbul Pandey has to battle the evil goon turned politician Baccha Bhaiyya. As he tries to strengthen his family ties with his father and brother. And romance his newly wed wife. And remain ‘Dabangg’ (fearless) no matter what.

Bodyguard (Siddique, India, 2011, 130 min)»

Lovely Singh (Salman Khan) is the bodyguard of Sartaj Rana’s (Raj Babbar) daughter Divya Rana (Kareena Kapoor). He is very devoted to his duties but irritates her all the time by following her everywhere. Consequently, Divya and her friend (Hazel Keech) call Lovely and start a prank love affair. Lovely starts loving the mystery person but doesn’t realizes that it is Divya (who also falls in love with him) who was behind all of this.