00:00Watching Siddharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra's Jabariya Jodi, a romantic comedy,
00:05is like being in a bad marriage that has gone irrevocably sour.
00:14You hang on to it, hoping that there's a happy ending somewhere, but no such ending ever arrives,
00:19similar is the fate of the viewers who are watching the movie Jabariya Jodi.
00:24Firstly, let me tell you what I liked about the film, and there's very little, honestly.
00:28It was Parineeti Chopra. There's something about her that's really vivacious and she's one of the
00:33few actresses who has this charisma and the worth to actually inject life into any character.
00:39The movie is set in Patna and it's set against the backdrop of groom kidnappings.
00:45As far as concepts go, it's a very interesting one.
00:48Imagine in Bihar, till today, there are grooms being kidnapped, eligible bachelors being kidnapped,
00:54forced to marry at gunpoint because they don't have the money to pay the dowry.
00:59So it's almost like it's a fallout from the social evil of dowry,
01:03where grooms are kidnapped and forced to marry girls.
01:06It's such a bizarre and morbid concept and such a fantastic concept at that.
01:10So it held a lot of promise, but somehow director Prashant does not do a good job
01:15of translating well onto the big screen.
01:18Siddharth Malhotra plays a henchman. He's a lead player. He's called Abhay Singh.
01:22He's very uncouth, we are told.
01:24He's got daddy issues because his dad has questionable morals.
01:28And what we have is a very confused young man who resorts to kidnapping grooms for money.
01:33As far as casting goes, this is one of the movies where it does not get their casting right.
01:37Siddharth Malhotra is too vanilla to play a henchman.
01:41He's not uncouth and no matter how hard he tries to be rough and rugged,
01:45it somehow does not land.
01:47His father, played by Javed Jafri, is a goon of sorts.
01:51He's got political heft but has a criminal bent of mind.
01:54And he treats his mother very shabbily.
01:57So he comes from a troubled home.
01:58So he's a commitment phobe of sorts, we are told.
02:00That's the backstory.
02:02But the funny part about this film is that it would have benefited so much
02:06if they had just focused on groom kidnappings and making a comedy about that.
02:11Instead, it snowballs into this grand love story between Babli,
02:15played by Parineeti Chopra and Abhay Singh.
02:18Both of them are very confused about each other.
02:20And they're not very sure if they want to commit.
02:23And it takes a long time for them to realize that they're soulmates.
02:27And by then, we wish we were dead.
02:29So that's one of the sad parts about Jabariya Jodi.
02:32It's a forced union and there is no happy ending for the viewer in sight.
02:37In fact, there's also a very disturbing scene by Parineeti Chopra
02:41where she has this propensity to elope with boyfriends.
02:46And one of them, they don't show up and she goes and beats the hell out of him.
02:50It's supposed to be a comic scene.
02:53Somehow in this day and age of violence against people in general,
02:57it's just not fair that you go around hitting men
03:00just because they don't want to elope with you.
03:02Perhaps a conversation would have made more sense.
03:04So I did not find those scenes particularly funny.
03:07But the ones who are funny are friends of Parineeti Chopra.
03:10They're so enduring, especially Apar Shakti Khurana.
03:13He plays Santo, who is Parineeti Chopra's best friend.
03:18And the best part of them, they have some very good chemistry going on between them.
03:22In fact, I was rooting for the besties to unite
03:25rather than actually Siddharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra's character.
03:29It shows the kind of lack of chemistry or spark that they have.
03:32If it's going to be a grand love story,
03:34then you have to have enough chemistry to keep the momentum going,
03:38which is a sad thing.
03:39The climax of the film is very long as well.
03:42You need to be very patient for this movie to play out.
03:45I've gone with 2 out of 5.
03:47For my full review, go to gulfnews.com slash tabloid.
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