A small film can sometimes throw up a big surprise. You go in to watch an oddly titled, under-promoted, low-budget film with the lowest of expectations, Nawazuddin Siddique being its only magnet. And you find yourself refreshingly amused for the next two hours.
Some weeks ago, the Ranbir-Shraddha Kapoor film Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar had a somewhat similar theme. The bride enlisting the help of the wedding planner to break the nuptials before they happen.
However, director Kushan Nandy and writer Ghalib Asad Bhopali go far beyond, taking a wacky route that’s not slapstick slip-on-a-banana-peel comedy but has plenty of fun in the situations and dialogues.
Lucknow-based events organiser Jogi Pratap (Nawazuddin Siddique) is the sole male in a house full of cacophonous women led by his mother (Zarina Wahab) who’s not the regular beta-khaana-khao kind of mom. In fact there’s one sequence where it’s Jogi who has to placate a sister by making her eat. The introductory scene where all the women crib at what Jogi has brought them from Bareilly and a jail sequence where they land up in burqas prompt a giggle but is underlaid with a heart that ticks and keeps them together. There’s no overt emotion on display, yet in the general kit-kit of the ladies, there is a warm human thread. But convinced that ‘ladies ko khush rakhna aur ladies ko samajhna’ is beyond the ken of any man, Jogi is marriage phobic.
Fate has brought Dimple Chaubey (pretty Neha Sharma) into his life.
Dimple is brash, wants to escape her marriage to lumbering Lallu (Mahaakshay Chakraborty) and turns in despair to wedding arranger Jogi. “Disarrange my marriage,” pleads Dimple.
What follows is kidnap and chaos. A pair of cops dubbed ‘Double Yadav’ (Vishwanath Chatterjee and Ghanshaym Garg) see the hand of Chacha Choudhary (Sanjay Mishra) in the kidnap and want their cut.
You know where it will ultimately head when the mess gets messier with Jogi and Dimple set to wed. But the breezy lightness is welcome with even two dances by Jogi and co keeping the tempo alive.
Bringing on the guffaws are scenes like Jogi poring over photographs spread out on a table by the cops, a brilliant carrom sequence with ‘Double Yadav’ and Chacha Choudhary, a silly fight scene (action by Kaushal Naseem) and Chacha lying horizontal on the khatiya while someone speaks.
General wackiness topped with perfectly timed performances from Nawazuddin and Sanjay Mishra ensure that the mirth flows without a stop.
Dimple’s father (Bhagwan Tiwari), mother (Geeta Agarwal Sharma), mamaji (Shubhrajyoti Barot) and dadi (Farrukh Jaffar) pitch in to keep it rollicking. The surprise package is Mahaakshay Chakraborty (Mithun’s son Mimoh) who plays Lallu with flair.
But will Jogira… laugh its way to the bank? Although it deserves an audience, these are unpredictable times at the box-office and OTT always seems the safer option.
Watch the trailer of Jogira Sara Ra Ra:
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