Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Jurm


[Pic Courtesy Jurm Official Site]

Most of Vikram Bhatt's movies have been remakes of Hollywood flicks but though his Jurm does have shades of other English(and Hindi) thrillers, the product as a whole appears to be an original. It is a passable thriller that keeps us entertained inspite of being mostly predictable. The movie opens with Bobby Deol, a rich businessman, accused of killing his wife Lara Dutta in cold blood. As the police grill him about his past, his legal advisor/best friend Milind Soman and Gul Panag, who loves him, are the only ones on his side.

The best part about Jurm is that it realises that it is a thriller. So there is no irritating comedy track and even the romance is kept to a bare minimum with just what is necessary for the plot. We get a decent protagonist to root for as well as despicable villains to hate and the plot goes through enough twists and turns to hold our interest. The flashbacks and court scenes are interesting and the movie is assembled like a good thriller, where we learn more as we go along.

But the movie reveals its secrets a little too soon. Rather than revealing things slowly, it lets the entire cat out of the bag by the halfway point. This does lead to a surprising intermission point but results in the movie being stretched way too long in the second half, when it moves to Malaysia. Bobby Deol's plan, which is interesting in the beginning, soon becomes tedious and its execution depends on some physical impossibilities and fantastic coincidences (to name one, Bobby Deol, a famous businessman who is being chased by the police and has his face in all the papers, is able to travel to Malaysia wearing a cap and sunglasses!) . The climax is also cinematic with a fight in a stadium and a parking garage.

Bobby Deol is quite wooden but since all he is required to do is to look alternately sad and angry, he fits the role. Lara Dutta is impressive in a few scenes. Milind Soman is adequate while Gul Panag looks pretty but is sidelined. One of the songs is a copy of the Aasai Aasai... number from Dhool but is still catchy and the song sequence at the costume party is picturized well. As long as you have some free time, watching Jurm is no jurm!

10 Comments:

At 4:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Two words.....Double Jeopardy

 
At 4:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

To comment in true Goundamani style
"Intha padam rejectu!":-)

 
At 5:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

To comment in true Vadivelu style:
"Sirupulla Thanamaa irukku...english padatha paathu kaapi adichutttaaanyaaaaa...adichuttaanyaa!"

 
At 6:19 PM, Blogger Balaji said...

anon, was also reminded quite strongly of a couple of other hindi films. But refrained from mentioning their names so as not to give the plot away...

 
At 1:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

you really liked ‘jurm’ bj?

I thought it was really weak.. esp considering all the good thrillers that have come out in hindi..

I thought ‘ek hasina thi’ was the best indian thriller to come out in years, what are your thoughts on that one??

 
At 3:16 PM, Blogger Balaji said...

can't say i liked 'jurm'. reminded me too much of other thrillers and the 2nd half was weak. I would rate it OK.

I thot EHT was good but not sure if i'd call it the 'best thriller to come out in years'. It too reminded me of other movies, esp. 'Double Jeopardy'. Has there been an original Hindi thriller in recent yrs? The ones I can think of are all remakes...

 
At 9:22 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

bj, I agree many of the recent hindi thrillers have been taken from hw - but that is b/c most of them are from the bhatt camp : )

apart from ramu’s ‘ek hasina thi’, mishra’s ‘chameli’ was the other great thriller to release recently… check it out if you have not already… and it is original

and as for up coming hindi thrillers - ramu’s ‘my wife's murder’ w/ anil looks awesome

check out the trailor… ‘my wife's murder’


btw bj, have you checked out ‘ab tak 56’ yet??

victor

 
At 11:23 PM, Blogger Balaji said...

chameli's a thriller?! I thot it was a story about the encounter between businessman and a prostitute? doesn't sound like thriller material!

nope, havent seen 'ab tak 56' yet. mainly cos of my wife who says she's had enuf of guns, blood and violence for a while! But it is on my netflix queue :)

 
At 11:43 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

though not a pure thriller, ‘chameli’ definitely is a thriller… check it out, it is one of the best films of the year

‘my wife who says she's had enuf of guns, blood and violence for a while!”

‘at56’ is not that kind of film… it’s an intense neo noir w/ heavy philosophical undertones...

victor

 
At 6:09 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Enjoyed a lot! »

 

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