Jai Gangaajal: Movie Review

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After a gap of 3 years, since his last release of Satyagraha in 2013, which did an average business at the box office, Prakash Jha is back with a bang. His much awaited movie, Jai Gangaajal, finally hits theatres this Friday. Though the opening collection of the film at the box office seemed satisfactory but somewhere the film failed to establish direct contact with the audience which Prakash Jha’s previous films did.

Priyanka Chopra looked absolutely rock-solid donning the role of a fiery cop, but again, the audience had expected much more brilliant performance from the talented actress. The predictable ending and long duration of the movie might have restrained more and more audience from going to theatres.

The film is based on a village called Bankipur, which is totally lawless due to exerting over influence of local MLA Bablu Pandey and his cohorts. Prakash Jha must be given credit for astutely depicting a typical north Indian village which is completely devastated due to law and order crisis ­– something which was rampant in the early nineties in the interior parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Jai Gangaajal Movie: The Plot and Summary

The twist in the film comes when SP Abha Mathur (Priyanka Chopra) took charge of the place directly challenging Bablu Pandey and his associates to stop creating law and order mess in the place.

MLA Bablu (Manav Kaul) and his brother Dabloo (Ninad Kamat) along with their associates frequently took law in their own hands by indulging in illegal activities including murder, rape and plundering of farmers’ lands in a forceful manner. But Abha Mathur decided to teach them a lesson and bring normalcy back to Bankipur. But it was not that much easier to do so. The young lady SP was flabbergasted to find the nexus between land mafias, local leaders and a few cops in her own office. The film also showed how mobs kill local goons by taking law in their hands – which is completely lawless and illegal in itself.

The surprise package of the film is the debut of the director himself on screen for the first time. Yes, Prakash Jha’s portrayal of a corrupt cop and then transformed into an honest police official is something that keeps audience engaged with the movie. Apart from it, there are many interesting twists and turns in the movie including Priyanka Chopra’s first ever full-fledged role as a woman police official and action sequences following it. Overall, the film turns out to be good pastime but if you are a fan of Prakash Jha then this one is unmissable. And mind you Jai Gangaajal is completely different and far more complicated than its prequel Gangaajal of Ajay Devgn.

Jai Gangaajal: Key Facts

Genre: Social Melodrama with lots of action sequences.

Star Casts: Prakash Jha, Priyanka Chopra, Manav Kaul, Ninad Kamat and Rahul Bhat.

Duration: 2 hours 38 minutes.

Rating: ***/5