Jigra Review: Gumrah Goes Feminist

It's an attempt to create a touching story about a sister who fights for her brother. Their journey to come back together tests their relationship, values, and inner strength. Who wouldn't go to great lengths to protect what they love?

Jigra Movie Cast/Actors: Alia Bhatt as Satya Anand, Vedang Raina as Ankur Anand, Manoj Pahwa as Bhatia, Akansha Ranjan Kapoor as Flight Attendant & others

Jigra Movie Director: Vasan Bala

Jigra Movie Production Company: Dharma Productions & Eternal Sunshine Productions

Jigra Movie Release Date: 11th October, 2024

Jigra Movie Available On: Theatrical Release and (likely to be released on Netflix OTT Platform)

Jigra Movie Released/Available In Languages: Hindi

Jigra Movie Runtime: 2h 33m

Jigra Movie Critic Review:

Perhaps Karan Johar, Alia Bhatt and director Vasan Bala, who co-writes with Debashish Irengbam, hope that nobody remembers Gumrah (1993), the Sanjay Dutt-Sridevi starrer which Mahesh Bhatt directed for Dharma Productions’ founder Yash Johar. In 1993, it was a besotted Sanjay Dutt who’d helped Sridevi break out of a Bangkok prison where she faced a death sentence after being framed by her boyfriend for drug trafficking. Bhatt had helped himself to the theme from the 1989 TV series Bangkok Hilton where an estranged father helps his daughter break out of a Bangkok prison in similar circumstances as Sridevi in Gumrah.

In 2024, Bhatt’s daughters (Shaheen too, as one of the producers) and Karan provide a platform for Vasan Bala to retell the same story with a twist. It’s older sister Satya (Alia Bhatt) who puts her life on the line to save Ankur (Vedang Raina) from an impregnable prison in a fictional country that closely resembles Thailand. Ever since they were kids, she’s been the protective sis, especially after they returned from school one day and saw their dad jump off the balcony. Apart from the gender switch where it’s a heroine to the rescue of a sibling, Vasan Bala also deviates from the boyfriend template and signs “Bade Papa” (Akashdeep), who brought up Satya-Ankur, as the culprit who puts Ankur in the dock to save his own son.

And so there’s a seething sister out to bring Ankur back from the brink of an electric chair.

Ballsy Satya is established early as is the fiercely protective streak in her. Her fierce appetite for doing what she sets out to do is visually explicit as she devours everything that’s on the menu on the flight to fictional Hanshi Dao.

There is also a reference to the equation between Bade Papa and the young siblings – Satya knows that they are staff on duty, not really family.

Using ‘la’ at the end of every sentence (don’t forget, we’re somewhere in South-East Asia), Bala creates a cruel jail world where Ankur is made to clean the electric chair he’s soon going to sit on and gets whipped by his own friend, topped with salt lashes that literally add salt to the wound.

Outside, Satya, the yellow belt martial arts fighter who got kicked out of further competitions for refusing to play by the book, combats ex-cop Muthu (Rahul Ravindran) who has a son in the same prison and pals up with retired gangster Bhatia (Manoj Pahwa) whose son also wears the purple shirt of prisoners on the death row.

Here’s where it gets weary. Elaborate planning is spelt out by the trio outside while the trio inside makes its own long-drawn escape plan.

It simply goes on and on, punctuated with fights, setbacks and the overuse of old Hindi numbers in the background including ‘Jhuki jhuki si nazar’ (from Arth), ‘Chakku churiya’ (from Zanjeer), ‘Yaari hai imaan’ (Zanjeer) and of course ‘Phoolon ka taaron ka’ (the RD number from Dev Anand’s Hare Rama Hare Krishna that had siblings at its core). Original compositions like Achint Thakkar’s ‘Tenu sang rakhna’ play on too, and for no reason at all Diljit Dosanjh comes in with ‘Chal kudiye’ only for the end credits.

But by this time, it’s been an endlessly exhausting rescue, a jail break that’s messy and stretched and more than Satya-Ankur, the viewer can’t wait for them to cross into safe Malaysian waters.

Alia Bhatt tries to be spirited but her physical frailty is at odds with the ferociousness that’s unleashed from time to time. Vedang Raina is comfortable as Ankur.

Jigra – Watch Or Not?: It is an interesting twist to have the sis wear the rakhi at least metaphorically. But the overlong sequences and the general screen chaos make it a tiresome watch.

Jigra Movie Review Score Rating: 2 out of 5 (i.e. 2/5)

Jigra Movie Official Trailer:

Credits: Dharma Productions

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