Quirky meets glamorous
It’s Wednesday afternoon and Ambience Mall in Gurgaon is having a rare quiet day. However, the Vero Moda store on the ground floor seems to be in a grip of excitement of sorts with groups of young women gazing up at a series of boards and conversing animatedly. Ranaut, dressed in an aquamarine dress embellished with exquisite netting, gazes down from each of these boards. This is one of the many dresses that she has designed for Marquee, a limited edition collection by Vero Moda. “I see her pictures daily in the style sections of most newspapers. Whether she is at the airport or out for an event, she is always so well put together,” says 29year-old Sakshi Yadav, marketing executive with a popular juice brand. So, when she got to know that Ranaut had put
together a collection, Yadav simply
There are movies that take you back in time and instill a sense of nostalgia because of the execution and filming. Jazbaa is not one of them. The Sanjay Gupta action thriller suffers from a hangover from his Kaante days and the effect is less than palatable. The green filters, the camera angles and the exaggerated slow-motion sequences, all come together and form a jarring array of scenes that do not culminate in a symphony.
A remake of Korean film Seven Days (2007), Jazbaa has the advantage of a strong and gripping script. Sadly, the potential of a compelling storyline is squandered by lackluster direction. The film does not offer logic for some of the most pivotal parts of the story. For instance, the audience is told that Anuradha Verma (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) is a reputed lawyer who has never lost a case in her life. However, when the fact is to be established, it turns out that she wins her cases by pointing out the obvious in the loudest way possible. There is no proof of her wit, presence of mind or legal acumen in the entire scene.
Jazbaa has been marketed as Rai Bachchan’s comeback film and the amount of screen time she occupies justifies the positioning. However, instead of just offering
Matthew McConaughey has done it, so have Sarah Jessica Parker, Gwyneth Paltrow and Gwen Stefani — each of these Hollywood stars has designed his or her own clothing line for major fashion brands. While celebrity-designer collaborations have been popular in the West for a while, it’s becoming a trend in India too. “It’s such a natural fit, considering the fan following these celebrities have,” says Agarwal. So, last year it was Karan Johar who designed the Marquee collection for Vero Moda, which drew inspiration from high-street trends and haute couture. Interestingly, it was Kangana Ranaut, this year’s Marquee designer, who was the muse and showstopper for Johar. “Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt are also launching special collaborative
It is just a myth that celebrities merely lend their name to a fashion collection
her screen time, Gupta would have done better by giving her character some depth. Rai Bachchan’s portrayal of the hotshot lawyer trying to save her daughter’s life comes across as screechy and over-the-top rather than compassionate and determined. In the scenes where the mandate seems to be more than just looking frantic and screaming and waving hands, Rai Bachchan delivers with the grace and poignancy of a mother desperate to save her daughter from doom. Considering that she anchors the film from start to end, one would expect more layers to the character. She carries the responsibility the best she could, though.
The film also succeeds in doing something one would now come to think of as impossible — show Irrfan Khan in an unflattering light for his acting. While he, like Rai Bachchan, seems to have tried his best to make the most of what is given to him, some scenes are simply too exaggerated and the dialogues cheesy. In fact, Khan’s understated delivery of some of these dialogues is what salvages many scenes. The Kaante-esque slow-motion walk, exaggerated angles and action, and bad lighting, however, don’t help his performance.
As with Rai Bachchan, Khan too has his moments of brilliance on the screen, most of which are dialogue-driven. Playing a decorated policeman who has been found guilty of corruption and is facing an inquiry, Khan brings out the grit and despondency of his character effortlessly. He brings credibility to the dry humour that the script has to offer and the audience can empathise with the decisions he makes. Romance is where he scores yet again, just like in Piku earlier this year.
Kudos also to the supporting cast of Shabana Azmi, Jackie Shroff and Abhimanyu Singh — all of them deliver the goods with efficiency. Azmi, as the grieving mother of a rape and murder victim, Shroff, as the politician who will go to any lengths to protect his public image, and Singh, as the goon with morals, are convincing.
Chandan Roy Sanyal as Miyaaz Shaikh, the convict Rai Bachchan is supposed to defend to save her daughter, comes across as maniacal and unstable. Whether he is supposed to be perceived this way is unclear as the film fails to establish this.
All-in-all, the film fails to impress the way it promises, simply because the direction fails to hit the mark. Had the director spent more time on building the foundation in the first half and less on putting the green filter and slow-motion sequences, it would have made a world of difference.