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T-Series Films, Tandav Film Entertainment and Aatpat’s Jhund (UA) is the story of the fruitful engagement of street urchins by a professor on the threshold of retirement.
Prof. Vijay Borade (Amitabh Bachchan) often sees street urchins smoking pot and cigarettes in a playground which he often uses as a thoroughfare. One day, he offers them Rs. 500 if they play a game of football among themselves. They find the offer lucrative, more so because he provides the football too. This soon becomes a pastime-with-benefit for the street kids, and Prof. Vijay sees them becoming better citizens as they spend more time with him and on the playground. By the by, the football team of hutment dwellers attains international recognition.
Nagraj Popatrao Manjule’s story has noble intentions inasmuch as it tries to convey that no person is born bad, that circumstances can lead a person to take the wrong path in life, and that young impressionable minds need to be purposefully engaged as an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. However, the story just has noble intentions; beyond that, there isn’t much steam in it. Manjule’s screenplay is long-drawn and boring, forcing the audience to believe that it was written for a half-an-hour TV serial but stretched into a 178-minute film! The portion (in the second half) in which the football players struggle to get their passports seems too stretched. What’s more, there are glaring mistakes in the screenplay too. For instance, Prof. Borade is not shown to be a coach to the street urchins but yet, at one point, he chides them and asks them, is that how he had coached them? Hello, when did he ever coach them? Sure, he gave them a purpose in life and a football to play, but that can’t be the same thing as coaching, can it? Not just that, the screenplay is also very sketchy while at the same time being repetitive. So while it goes on and on about how the hutment dwellers were wasting their lives before they started playing football, the team’s progress is not very convincing as it hasn’t been convincingly written. Had the team’s trials and tribulations been shown, the drama would have become a far more emotional one. In the present form, the emotions fail to move the audience to tears, which is what was required.
A lot of drama in the screenplay is predictable. Yes, some of the humour is raw and, therefore, makes the audience laugh but a stray laughter here and there does not a good screenplay make. Also, Prof. Vijay Borade’s constant ‘begging’ for his football team’s ‘rights’ gets irritating after a point of time, and actually makes the viewers wonder whether the writer himself lacked conviction in his script. Perhaps, the only moving scene in the entire drama in the screenplay is the last scene in the film when ‘Don’ Ankush crosses the security check at the international airport and is greeted by his friends. Nagraj Popatrao Manjule’s dialogues are nice and realistic.
Amitabh Bachchan does a good job but there is neither much meat nor are there too many layers in his character. Ankush Gedam shines as ‘Don’ Ankush. Kishor Kadam is excellent as Prof. Borade’s colleague. Akash Thosar looks handsome and acts with effortless ease. Bhushan Manjule lends decent support. Jerico Robert leaves a mark. Kartik Uikey is cute. Rinku Rajguru makes her presence beautifully felt. Ankit Banvale makes his presence felt. Babu Kshatriya, Rajiya Kazi, Sayli Patil, Allen Patrick, Jaspreet Singh Randhawa, Saurabh Abhayankar, Angel Anthony, Yogesh Uikey, Vishakha Uikey, Niraj Jamgade, Sachin Meshram, Saurabh Sharma, Nikhil Ganvir, Chirag Sharma, Rihan Shaikh, Bobby Ropal, Surat Limbo, Sadanand Swami, Kiran Pralhad Thoke, Rishabh Bodhile, Badal Soren, Sarvannan J., Sohan Durve, Nickson D’Costa, Jaskirath Singh Vij, Khelchandra Hemam, Chhaya Kadam, Ramdas Phutane, Somnath Awaghade, Arjun Radhakrishnan, Vaibhavi Pardeshi, Yashpal Sarnath, Tanaji Galgunde, Arbaj Shaikh, Ashish Suresh Khachane, Anand Madaye and Vitthal Nagnath Kale lend the desired support.
Nagraj Popatrao Manjule’s direction is so-so. The film seems like a never-ending saga of street urchins which entertains less and also becomes boring after a point of time. Unfortunately, the film fails to tug at the heart strings. Ajay-Atul’s music is raw but the absence of hit songs is sorely felt. Lyrics (Amitabh Bhattacharya and Ajay-Atul; Rap lyrics by 100 RBH and Vipin Tatad (VIP)) are average. Saket Kanetkar’s background music could’ve been far more thrilling. In a story of the underdogs, if the background score cannot give the viewers goosebumps, it is, more often than not, lacking. Sudhakar Yakkanti Reddy’s cinematography is fairly nice. Production designing (Snigdha Karmahe and Pankaj Shivdas Poal) and art direction (Binay Sarkar) are okay. Editing (Kutub Inamdar and Vaibhav Dabhade) needed to be more sharp.
On the whole, Jhund may have its heart in the right place but that’s not enough to set the cash registers ringing. The film will win more critical acclaim than box-office rewards. Flop. It will do slightly better in pockets of Maharashtra.
Released on 4-3-’22 at Inox (daily 5 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Zee Studios. Publicity: dull. Opening: ordinary. …….Also released all over. Opening was below the mark everywhere.