Jazbaa Hindi Movie Review

Sanjay Gupta is more famous for sleek, stylish and action oriented movies like Kante, Shootout at Lokhandwala, Zinda and Mussafir to name a few. In Jazbaa too, the style quotient is definitely there in each and every frame but the compromising factor here is the content.
Of course the film is touted to be the launching pad for the second innings of Aiswarya Rai Bachchan. On that count, the film is quite successful in giving a new lease of life to the actress coming back after a five year gap with a role that has something strong in it. But after watching the film in its entirety, I felt the sole purpose of Jazbaa was to project Aiswarya as someone extraordinary going all out.
Jazbaa is all about the search by Anuradha Varma, a leading criminal lawyer who is more famous for taking cases of the people who are accused of crime. Here the search is for her kidnapped daughter.
As a film, Jazbaa had the potential to be a racy, taut and edge of the seat thriller but sadly it thrills you only in parts. It could have much much better if the content and screenplay was given more prominence than giving Aiswarya and her character a boost up in each and every scene, the dialogues and the overall scheme of things.
As in most of the films of Sanjay Gupta, Jazbaa too from what I have read has a source film based on which the movie is being remade and here we have a Korean connection. Dialogues were quite good with nice one liners spicing up the tempo at some places.
On the acting side, Aiswarya makes a good comeback and excelled as Advocate Anuradha Varma. But at the same time one cannot ignore the melodrama at some places connected with her character that created a bad feel.
Irrfan Khan as always can be trusted in whatever roles he is given and it repeats here in Jazbaa too. Though his character didn't have the same mileage as that of Aiswarya's, still the actor through his trademark style of acting pulled it off to ensure he is not reduced to the sidelines. Shabna Asmi and Jackie Shroff were two notable actors who didn't get their due share of screen presence though the former had something to show towards the end. Same can be said about Atul Kulkarni who also seemed to be wasted considering the talent he has.
Just like most of his recent movies, Jazbaa too had that tone of green and yellow in its visuals that have that sleek feel to it. Background score was okay but could have been better.
In the end, you can say, Jazbaa is a stylish film packaged with less substance. With the main intention being the projection of Aiswarya Rai to the forefront after her break from the industry, the story part and presentation aspect in providing ample thrills and suspense gets a beating. Now to the ratings, I am going for two and a half out of five for Jazbaa.
Rating - 2.5 / 5