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Viacom18 Studios and Dharma Productions’ Jugjugg Jeeyo (UA) is a family drama laced with comedy.
Kukoo (Varun Dhawan) and Naina (Kiara Advani) live in Canada and although they pose to be happily married, they are on the verge of a divorce. They decide to keep the façade going for a few more days till Kukoo’s sister, Ginny (Prajakta Koli), is married off in India. The couple arrives in India from Canada but before Kukoo can break the bad news to his parents, Bheem (Anil Kapoor) and Geeta (Neetu Kapoor), he gets a shock of his life when Bheem tells him that he is planning to divorce Geeta. Meanwhile, Ginny is also not sure whether she wants to marry the guy she is getting married to or her ex-boyfriend. In short, all the members of Bheem and Geeta’s family are facing major problems in their lives.
Anurag Singh has written an unusual story about a father and son sailing in the same boat. The story is also interesting and keeps the audience engaged because one doesn’t know which direction it will head in. The screenplay, penned by Rishabh Sharma, Anurag Singh and Sumit Bhateja, with additional screenplay by Neeraj Udhwani, is weak. It gives the impression of too many cooks having spoilt the broth. It also appears as if an entire building has been constructed without laying the foundation. The audience knows that Kukoo and Naina are not happy in their marriage but they keep wondering what exactly is their problem till very late in the day. Besides, their problems are sought to be explained through dialogues only as there are hardly any scenes to substantiate the spoken words. Similarly, Bheem simply tells son Kukoo that he would be divorcing Geeta but the audience is left wondering why. His dialogue that biwiyaan toh munh se nivaala chheen leti hai simply doesn’t ring true because that’s not one bit the reason why Bheem is seeking a divorce, and that’s not how Geeta is. In fact, the same Bheem admits later that he wanted romance in his life and missed getting that from Geeta. As if this weren’t bad enough, Geeta herself reveals to daughter-in-law Naina that she, too, wants a divorce. And the reason she gives is not because Bheem wants to leave her (before the revelation, Geeta is clueless about the divorce plan of Bheem) but because she was now tired of the marriage. Really? Again, the viewers never ever got that feeling, making them wonder if she was saying all this only to spite Bheem. Frankly, Geeta trying to save son Kukoo and Naina’s marriage while confiding in Naina about she being unhappy in her own marriage looks weird, to say the least. The funny part is that nobody in the family is interested in knowing why the others are hell bent on divorce.
The scene in which Geeta confronts Bheem’s girlfriend, Meera (Tisca Chopra), in front of her (Geeta’s) entire family falls flat on its face. That scene ought to have brought tears to the viewers’ eyes, nothing short of that would work. But the way the scene unfolds, it doesn’t even tug at the heart strings. Similarly, the scene in the family court, first between Bheem and Geeta, and then, between Kukko and Naina fail to move the audience to tears.
There are plenty of light scenes in the film, some of which don’t evoke laughter. But there are some really hilarious scenes too, which will make the viewers laugh, even guffaw. However, without a strong emotional undercurrent and some heavy-duty emotional scenes, the comedy looks lopsided. After all, divorce is a serious matter and if that can’t move the viewers emotionally, no amount of comedy is going to do the trick.
As a consequence of the aforementioned and other scripting flaws, the audience does not know whether to go home feeling happy or sad. For, it is not clear whether Bheem and Geeta will patch up their differences or not. More importantly, it is also unclear whether Bheem has mended his ways or not. Just like it is not clear whether Kukoo hates his father or adores him. In one scene, Kukoo is seen firing Naina for aiding the divorce of his parents, and soon thereafter, he is seen to be the biggest votary for the divorce. All these things don’t leave the viewers in a very happy space because they don’t know whether Kukoo is their hero or not, whether Bheem is a nice human being or not. Also, since every member of the family is faced with serious relationship problems, the audience doesn’t quite like the feeling that it is watching a story of a dysfunctional family.
While the light scenes are the writers’ strong point, the emotional, dramatic and melodramatic scenes seem to have been written in a confused state of mind. The audience almost gets the feeling that a lot of compromises have been made in the script in a bid to not show any of the four characters black. If one were to talk of the characterisations, Bheem is a flirt but he vows that he has never had physical relations with any woman except wife Geeta. If that is true, why does he want to divorce his wife? And if that is true, what is Geeta talking (to daughter-in-law Naina) about having realised four days after her marriage that she had blundered in choosing Bheem as her life partner. Nothing, repeat, nothing is revealed to the audience. Perhaps, the writers did not have anything to reveal. But then, without anything to substantiate, Geeta’s comments make no sense. Kukoo’s dilemma in his married life does not win the sympathy of the audience because there are simply no scenes to substantiate what he and Naina are saying. Is Naina a selfish partner? No. Then why does she give up so easily? No clue! The reason put forth by Ginny in ditching her ex-boyfriend doesn’t make her appear like a very nice person. Confused? Yes! But also selfish and opportunistic.
Rishabh Sharma’s dialogues are good in the light scenes mainly. The dialogues in the emotional and dramatic scenes fall short of expectations.
Anil Kapoor does an outstanding job. As Bheem, he is amazing and evokes laughter with his perfect timing. Neetu Kapoor does reasonably well as Geeta. Her characterisation tends to confuse the viewers about who the real Geeta is. Varun Dhawan gives a very good account of himself. In the role of Kukoo, he does full justice to his character. However, his characterisation leaves something to be desired because he changes his stance in a jiffy — and on several occasions! Kiara Advani looks glamorous and performs very well in the role of Naina. Manish Paul (as Gurpreet) lends tremendous support and evokes laughter every time he appears on the scene. Prajakta Koli does an average job as Ginny. Tisca Chopra is fair as Meera. She has not looked her glamorous self. Sparna Marwah and Deepak Kriplani get hardly any scope. Sawant Singh Premi (as Balwinder), Shivani Singh (as Rimpy), Manmeet Singh (as the doctor), Varun Sood (as Gaurav), Mohit Sharma (as Gogi), Gagandeep (as Bittu), Anuj (as Veera), Manoj Dutt (as the family court judge), Alok Nath Pathak (as the pandit for remarriage) and the rest provide decent support.
Raj Mehta’s direction is good in parts. While he has handled the light scenes with aplomb, his narration of the serious and emotional scenes is found to be lacking. Music (Tanishk Bagchi, Kanishk Seth-Kavita Seth, Diesby and Pozy) is good but several songs have not become very popular. The Naach Punjaban song is racy. The Rangi saari, Dupatta and Saawan songs are also melodious. Lyrics (Tanishk Bagchi, Dhruv Yogi, Diesby and Ginny Diwan) are well-worded. Song picturisations (by Adil Shaikh and Bosco-Caesar) are quite eye-filling,the best being Naach Punjaban. John Stewart Eduri’s background music is fair. Jay I. Patel’s cinematography is lovely. Sukant Panigrahi’s production designing is good. Manish More’s editing is fairly sharp.
On the whole, Jugjugg Jeeyo has good light moments but the drama is wrongly constructed and, therefore, does not hold much water. It will not be able to do well at the ticket windows.
Released on 24-6-’22 at Inox (daily 12 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Viacom18 Motion Pictures. Publicity: very good. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.
