| Tips Industries Ltd.’s Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story (UA) is the love story of an uneducated gangster, Jayantabhai (Vivek Oberoi), who works for Altafbhai (Zakir Hussain). Jayanta has a heart of gold. Simran Desai (Neha Sharma), a highly qualified girl who has come to Bombay to make a career, loses her job due to extraneous factors and, therefore, has to vacate the accommodation provided to her by her company. She comes to live in a rented house as the immediate neighbour of Jayanta. At first wary of him, she soon realises that he is a nice person in spite of belonging to the underworld. Both of them develop a fondness for each other and, in an inebriated state, even have physical relations one day.
Since Simran is unable to land a new job, Jayanta gives her his lucky bracelet under the belief that it will work wonders for her. Soon, her father lands in Bombay and realises that she has lost her job. Angry with her for not telling him, he asks her to return home but she lies that she has a boyfriend who can look after her. The father demands to meet the boyfriend, so Simran asks Jayanta to pretend to be a top executive of a company. Although Jayanta manages, with great difficulty, to impress Simran’s father who then agrees to get them married in a year’s time, the truth about his rowdy background is out in front of the father in no time. Realising that he had messed it all up, Jayanta returns to Bombay while Simran’s dad does not permit her to head to Bombay where she, in any case, is jobless. In Bombay, Jayanta gets a shock when he realises that Altafbhai is not the father figure he had thought he was. Suddenly, Jayanta remembers that Simran had an interview call to attend and so, he telephones her and pleads with her to come to Bombay for the interview. If Simran listens to Jayanta, she just might make it in time for the interview as there are just a few hours left for it to begin. Does Simran give in to Jayanta’s pleas and come to Bombay for the interview? Does her father allow her to go to Bombay? If yes, does she make it in time for the interview? What happens at the interview? Is Jayanta able to make up for the problems he had created for Simran? What happens to Jayanta’s equation with Altafbhai? Why was Altafbhai insisting that Jayanta go and apologise to Alex Pandian (Nasser), a disgraced police officer? Does Jayanta do so? What is Alex Pandian’s grouse against Jayanta? Does he forgive Jayanta? Do Jayanta and Simran ever meet again? Kiran Kotrial’s script about two diametrically opposite people being attracted towards each other has its own charm. While the basic story is oft-repeated, there are some tracks in it which are quite novel. For instance, the angle of Jayanta reaching the company in which Simran has to give an interview is both, different and appealing. Kotrial’s screenplay moves on two tracks – the love story of Jayanta and Simran, and the underworld track. While the romantic track is cute and comical, the underworld track has not been developed too well and is, therefore, very sketchy and also dull. That is why, the first half, which is devoted more to the interactions between Jayanta and Simran, is interesting and entertaining. The comedy which happens between the two is very enjoyable and evokes a good deal of laughter. Post-interval, the film takes a serious turn, especially once Jayanta messes it all up for Simran. Comedy takes a back seat from there on, which works to the detriment of the drama. Of course, the sequence in which Jayanta goes to the office where Simran’s interview is due, comes in the portion after the mess-up happens and that sequence is rather nice but a few scenes before and almost everything after that reduces the impact of the drama of the first half. Had Kiran Kotrial maintained the comedy, the drama would’ve continued to entertain. However, in the way the film unfolds, the first half evokes laughter whereas a good part of the second half is devoid of comedy and becomes dull and boring and, if one may say so, goes on a tangent. Climax is alright but needed to be far more exhilarating. Kiran Kotrial’s dialogues are full of punches, especially the comic ones. Vivek Oberoi is wonderful as gangster Jayanta. The language he speaks is so pedestrian and, at the same time, so cute that he instantly endears himself to the audience. He acts with effortless ease and does full justice to the character of Jayanta. His sense of comic timing is lovely. Neha Sharma looks glamorous and acts very well. She is also good in comedy as well as dramatic scenes and gets her expressions right. The chemistry between Vivek and Neha is very good. Nasser is effective as Alex Pandian but suffers on account of lack of establishment of his character and a role that’s not sufficiently lengthy. Zakir Hussain gets limited scope and is alright. Rahul Singh is also okay as gangster Datta, the right-hand man of Altafbhai. Vishwanath Chatterjee makes his presence felt as the lecherous Rohit Sharma. Shishir Sharma lends good support as Simran’s father. Nikhil Ratnaparkhi is very natural in the role of estate broker Wagle. Others provide fair support. Vinnil Markan shows promise as director. His handling of the subject is fine and he is especially good with comic and emotional scenes. He has extracted lovely work from most of his main actors. However, he has not been able to salvage the rather poor post-interval portion. Sachin-Jigar’s music is ear-pleasing but the romantic film could’ve done with hit music. All the same, the songs are nice. ‘Dil na jaane’, ‘Aa bhi jaa’, ‘Thoda thoda’ and ‘Hai na’ are ear-pleasing. Mayur Puri and Priya Panchal’s lyrics are good. Choreography of the ‘Aa bhi jaa’ song (by Longines Fernandes) is eye-filling. Raju Singh’s background score is effective. Santosh Thundiyil’s cinematography is excellent. Action scenes and stunts, composed by Kaushal-Moses, have appeal for the masses. Sets (Rajat Poddar) are appropriate. Editing (Manish More) is crisp enough. On the whole, Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story has an enjoyable first half but a weak second half. At the ticket windows, it will not be able to make its mark because Vivek Oberoi doesn’t have much of a drawing pull, and the initial of the film is very weak everywhere. Its reasonable cost (around Rs. 15-16 crore) and decent recoveries from non-theatrical sources may be points in its favour but the fact remains that the film will fail in the cinemas. Released on 15-2-’13 at Regal (matinee), Inox (daily 3 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Tips Industries Ltd. Publicity: good, quantitatively, but dull, in terms of quality. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was very dull everywhere. |
