CAST: Ranveer Singh, Shalini Pandey, Boman Irani, Jia Vaidya, Ratna Pathak Shah
DIRECTOR: Divyang Thakkar
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT
Jayeshbhai Patel, played by Ranveer Singh, is the sweet-tempered devoted husband of Mudra, played by Shalini Pandey. The story is about female empowerment but the hero is Jayesh, the man. Jayesh is a timid simpleton and while he is intimidated by his crazy misogynist parents, he has not inherited their patriarchy. He is, however, a mute spectator, and often a feeble supporter of their patriarchal expectations.
Mudra is expecting her seventh child. The couple has a daughter as their firstborn, after which five pregnancies became victims of female feticide. The doctor explains that another feticide will render the mother infertile her health has deteriorated because of consecutive abortions.. Triggered by the revelation, Jayesh decides to end the series of feticides and bring their child to life.
THE MEAT AND THE POTATOES
Jayeshbhai’s wife Mudra (Shalini Pandey) is pregnant for the eighth time and his parents (Boman Irani, Ratna Pathak Shah) want a boy form her or else they will marry their son off to someone else because they need a grandson to carry their family forward.
It doesn’t matter to them that their daughter-in-law has undergone six miscarriages and every new pregnancy endangers her health.
It doesn’t matter they already have a super sharp and social media savvy granddaughter in Siddhi (Jia Vaidya) who they do not love or show love towards.
Sex determination is a punishable offense in India , but it’s a common practice in the village of Pravingarh, where godly phrases
‘Jai Shree Krishna’ mean that its a boy and
‘Jai Mataji’ means its a girl.
They even call upon head bobbing goats or ladoo-dropping babas to figure out the gender of the fetus.
Jayeshbhai’s journey from Jayeshbhai to Jordaar, enabler to empowerment is the crux of the movie.
So after he learns the latest fetus is also a girl and resolves to save the unborn infant from his ruthless family at any cost.
An all-men’s village, an inevitable fate for all if the skewed sex ratio isn’t amended, in Haryana volunteers to help save his wife.
Except Jayeshbhai’s plan to run off with the expectant wife and pre-teen daughter turns into a classic case of out of the frying pan and into the fire.
IN THE KNOW
In making men the change -makers and heroes of stories, many production houses remain safely politically neutral in stating what they need to meekly.
Shalini Pandey has less screentime, fewer dialogues, and continued dependency than the actor who plays her daughter, Siddhi, p- Jia Vaidya, who gets to speak more than her and contributes significantly to the arc.
Ranveer Singh knows the craft of acting but wavers in his mannersisms as a Gujarati gentleman. His monologue is desired to have the impact of a closing argument but we kind of lost the plot there. The argument that the writer was making just didnt make sense. They were trying to communicate an idealogy of a simpleton but in that simplicity, the character came across more stupid than profound. That monologue was so not required.
Ranveer Singh’s mannerisms are over the top as if he is always trying to stay in the body of a gujju but failing to. Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah perform well, which should not be surprising.
On the whole, average affair and missing soul.
