Jail

By: Sumesh Vasishth

Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Mugdha Godse, Manoj Bajpai, Arya Babbar, Chetan Pandit, Rahul Singh, Kaveri Jha

Music Directors: Shamir Tandon, Sharib Sabri and Toshi Sabri

Director: Madhur Bhandarkar

SantaBanta Rating: ***

Corrupt cops, dingy and over cramped cells, inedible food, lecherous inmates and an all-pervasive bhai waiting to turn you into his sharp-shooter; Welcome to the Jail straight out of Kiran Bedi’s worst nightmares.

Everyone locked inside this god-awful place has a story good enough to be a tearjerker but Parag Manohar Dixit (Neil Nitin Mukesh) is different from them all.

The dreams for this upwardly mobile yuppie with a plush apartment and a high flying girlfriend come crashing down as he is asked to strip butt-naked by a rotund cop.

Parag has been detained for possessing the contraband stuff and his room-mate now lies unconscious in hospital wounded in police fire.

Dixit never realised his pal was a drug-peddler who used his cell phone with a ‘better network coverage’ to make professional phone calls and now the former is bearing the brunt of the crimes he never committed. But who is willing to listen?

He is denied bails on repeated attempts, dejected and crestfallen, he revolts and gets punished by the cops. No one believes that Parag can survive this hell, except for Nawaab (Manoj Bajpayee), who thinks that his innocence would see him through.

Day after day as his hopes for justice diminish, Dixit comes to term with his plight. This is where Madhur takes over and draws you into plots and subplots of other inmates, some funny, some conniving and some plain stupid but entertaining nonetheless.

Unlike other Bhandarkar films, the usual practice of sidekicks exposing the occupational hazards and pushing the jargon down your throat is pleasantly missing in Jail. And so is Madhur Bhandarkar himself, who rightly chooses not make an appearance given the solemnity of the subject.

To be ‘fair’ to Neil, this is his best performance till date. However, the same can’t be proclaimed about Mugdha Godse who sheds makeup to share the plight of his boyfriend but only ends up with cardboard histrionics. Manoj Bajpayee excels in his sombre portrayal of an empathising friend.

Aarya Babbar hams at times as rowdy Kabir. Rahul Singh as Abdul Ghani and Chetan Pandit as the Jailor are competent.

The subject like Jail has no scope for music but thankfully Shamir Tandon and Sharib-Toshi’s songs don’t hinder the pace of the story. Lata ji's soulful rendition perfectly reflects the moods of the protagonist.

Dialogues are listless at place and a few characters look too tacky taken straight out of regular page 3 mishaps.

All in all, Jail is an entertaining affair but even if you don’t like it you’ll come out much educated about Indian Penal Code and its nitty-gritty. While most people would pay anything to get out of Jail, I recommend you to pay to get into this one.