Jalsa Hindi Movie
Off late Bollywood thrillers are more rooted to the Indian urban milieu rather than mimicking the wild west. 'Jalsa', is one such movie that packages thrills and emotions in the right proportion. The movie directed by Suresh Triveni, is a direct-to-OTT premiere that streams on Amazon Prime.
Spearheaded by two of the finest actresses around, Vidhya Balan (as journalist Maya Menon) and Shefali Shah (as the affable cook and housekeeper Ruksana), this movie laid the perfect platform for an engaging narrative.
The movie is about a hit and run case of an 18 year old girl. The person behind the crime is well established. But the narrative keeps the hook alive by prodding into two different angles in the investigation. There is an emotional angle and an investigative angle.
We, as an audience, are taken a tour into the minds of the various characters. Especially, when we take a tour into journalist Maya Menon's psyche, we get to experience her discordance with her conscience like a fly on the wall. The sort of conversations that she has within herself. How people use and abuse her situation. How quickly her normal and routine life can come crashing down.
On the other hand, we also get to experience the emotions of a mother, Ruksana. Her inner battle of love for her own daughter and her employer's son (who is affected by cerebral palsy) unleashes an unending saga. We also get to experience the class divide between the haves and the have-nots and their priorities whenever tragedy strikes.
The investigative angle that is spearheaded by a young and enthusiastic journalist, Rohini George (played by Vidhatri) had some interesting twists in it. The cops, and their turmoil to convince the victim's family had an intriguing backstory.
The technicalities were fine enough to take the movie forward without hampering the pace. The choice of artists made sure the performances were taken care of. The only area that lagged was the pace, especially at times when the character of Maya experiences a turmoil within herself. We get to see a detailed cross section of her psyche. It has multiple layers, but it would have been better off without exploring the same.
The movie comes across as a decent thriller that has its share of emotional moments and some fine performances.
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