Jhund Review: Movie has its heart in the right place despite few loopholes
Jhund Movie Rating: 3.5 Stars
Just watched Jhund movie on Zee5. So let’s focus on the complete details, story, positive/negatives and at last my personal view on this movie.
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Akash Thosar, Rinku Rajguru and Ankush Gedam
Director: Nagraj Manjule
Release Date: 4th March 2022 in Cinemas & Digital Premiere on 6th May on Zee5
Story: Vijay Borade (Amitabh Bachchan) teaches in St John’s college and the educational institute is situated next to a vast slum locality. The youth in this area are not well-educated and do odd jobs for a living. They even resort to stealing jewellery and mobile phones and coal from moving trains.
One day, Vijay spots some of these youth like Ankush aka Don (Ankush Gedam), Babu (Priyanshu Kshatriya), Angel (Angel Anthony), Vishakha (Vishakha Uikey), Yogesh (Yogesh Uikey), Raziya (Rajiya Kazi) etc. playing football using an abandoned plastic box.
He realizes that they have immense potential but they are wasting their time committing crimes and consuming drugs so he asks them to play football for 30 minutes and in exchange, he’ll pay them Rs. 500.They agree and have a gala time and after they finish their game, Vijay hands them Rs. 500 as promised. This goes on for many days.
One day, Vijay doesn’t turn up on the ground and slum kids then go to his house. He tells them that he doesn’t have any more money to pay them. The slum kids, by now, have become so attached to playing the game, that they agree to play without money. Vijay coaches them and soon, they become quite better at their game.
Vijay proposes to the St John’s principal that these kids should be allowed to play a friendly match with the football team of the college. The principal reluctantly agrees. The coach of the St John’s team (Kishor Kadam) despises these slum children. He pressurizes the team to score 10 goals and not let the slum team score even one goal. What happens next forms the rest of the film.
Positives
1. Excellent Performances
2. Screenplay
3. Cinematography
4. Direction
5. Story
Negatives
1. Length
2. Music
3. Climax
4. Slow & Boring at few places
Durgesh Tiwary’s View : When I watched the trailer of this film planned to watch this movie on digital premiere because trailer was very good.
Based on the life of Vijay Barse, who is on the edge of retirement sports teacher who makes a soccer team of children in slum which is located besides the college as well as colony where Mr. Barse works and lives respectively. He managed to rehabilitate street lower caste kids by keeping them off drugs and crime by turning them into Football players and building a whole team. And he also managed to organise a National Football Tournament for all slum soccer players from all over India. So that he can select a best team for International Slum Football.
Jhund story is splendid and nicely blends sports and social message. Screenplay is hard-hitting. The goings-on gets a bit heavy but never turns depressing or too dark; he knows where to draw the line. However, at several places, the writing gets stretched. His storytelling is supreme and entertaining, and the way he throws light on certain social issues is seen to be believed. What’s great is that he doesn’t let it turn into a niche fare. The symbolism he has tried to convey at various places is easy to comprehend, even for mass audiences.
On the flipside, the film is too long at 178 minutes. The introduction of the setting and the characters are quite lengthy. Ideally, the film should be trimmed by around 20-30 minutes. The first half is quite power-packed and the second half also has its share of riveting sequences. The second half of the film touches upon a different kind of struggle of the slum team. It begins on a great note and Vijay’s first interaction with Ankush is too good. The scene where he pays the kids to play football adds to the fun. However, the film gets better as the makers convincingly show how the kids get used to the sport and are now ready to invest time in it without any monetary returns.
The football match with the college team forms a big chunk of the first half and is quite exciting. The sequence where these kids talk to Vijay about their lives is moving and executed brilliantly. Post-interval, a few sequences stand out like the kids themselves cleaning up the college premises, Monika’s struggle in getting her passport and the courtroom sequence. Overall, movie is a superb social entertainer, with Nagraj Popatrao Manjule’s writing and direction, and the performances being its core strengths. My view on this movie Recommended
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