Sunny side up, punches & punchlines
Ratings: ***** Excellent | **** very good |*** good | ** Average | * poor
“Yeh dhai kilo ka haath hai, is ki taakat North dekh chuka hai, ab South bhi dekhega.”
The reference to Sunny Deol’s iconic dialogue is more than obvious, as is the North-South alchemy. ‘Jaat’ marks the Hindi film debut of Telugu director Gopichand Malineni and encashes upon Deol’s stardom in its inimitable southern style. Only, the actioner that builds on Deol’s ‘post Gadar 2’ starry status amplifies it many times over. Undeniably, Sunny Bhaji is once again a one-man army who can stop a vehicle with one hand and bash up dozens and dozens of muscle men; in short, do all things unimaginable, but very much possible in this Dharam-putar line of action. Instead of uprooting a hand-pump, pillars and fans become his weapons of mass destruction.
Before we see him literally propel this actioner, the antagonist, the talented Randeep Hooda, appears in full evil glory. A Sri Lankan, he stumbles upon a cache full of gold bricks. With his confidantes, including younger brother Somulu (Vineet Kumar Singh) in tow, he escapes to India, buys his way in and builds his empire on the oars of sheer barbarism. And savagery is the projected USP of the film.
Mutilated bodies with heads severed at the slightest provocation — new benchmarks for senseless violence are set. Early on, even when a girl writes a letter to the President of India (the indomitable Ramya Krishnan), it is bloodstained. The packet containing thumbs of men is an ominous enough portent of what will follow.
Hooda as Ranatunga unleashes his reign of terror on hapless villagers. He kills without flinching, mercilessly and it’s only a matter of time before he will find his nemesis in the hero who calls himself ‘Jaat’. Of course, Sunny’s character has a name beyond the community tag which is revealed close to the climax, if you can call it that. For, every scene here appears to be climactic. When Sunny thunders, “Main badla loonga, main tujhe marunga”, you wonder why he needs to utter the obvious and the imminent. Not much in the film is truly on unexpected lines, even though it throws a few surprises and subverts a few cliches. However, the pace and performances stand out. Surprisingly, amid the chaos and incessant rain of violence, the actors shine. Not just Hooda, who is menace personified, letting his body language and the face do the talking, but even Vineet Kumar Singh. As the vile Somulu, he gets to showcase his skills in a well-fleshed-out part.
Sunny Deol’s earnest act brings on a smile or two on our faces as he goes around seeking an apology from the goondas, obviously a ruse to engage with them. Deol acts in a bombastic fashion, which gels with his larger-than-life persona. He gets to mouth some seeti-maar dialogues which are likely to join the league of many of his memorable evergreen ones. Dialogue baazi is very much alive here and even Makarand Deshpande’s cameo gets his fair share of impressive one-liners. One particular faceoff has been designed just to get both the hero and the villain to indulge in some word power and verbal sparring.
The slant of the film, which moves from Sri Lanka to India, is but obviously meant to elicit whistle-worthy moments. The first half cruises to the interval point. Some more plot-points, thorium reserves, yet another foreign angle, the rights of indigenous people are added to the torrent of action buoyed by Thaman S’ background score.
To impress upon the bravado and heroism of our Jaat with a song ‘Jatt Ton Jaat Rakane, Dunia De Heere Aa’ by Amrit Maan to boot, Deol’s character is given two back stories. Even Hooda is given an extra shot of villainy with yet another reveal. Regina Cassandra as Ranatunga’s wife, too, gets her vamp-ish streak right.
If you don’t see bloodcurdling violence as an assault on your senses and don’t have issues with how women, even those serving in the police, continue to be depicted as objects of sexual assault, the film which leaves you with little time to pause and think might qualify as a mass entertainer.
Only, remember, ‘badalte India main’, it’s not just Sunny’s screen roles as the eternal saviour which have not changed. Our definition of the masala brand of cinema and mass entertainers has not shifted much, except maybe a tweak here and there.
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