The film releasing without much promotions did have some kind of excitement due to it unusual subject and interesting cast featuring Saif Ali Khan and Tabu. But unfortunately, all the positive vibes more or less fail to deliver as neither the writing nor the direction presents the novel and sensitive subject with any kind of emotional depth or compassion.
Despite having a fresh, unexplored plot of a young daughter coming to meet her biological father for the first time, who is living the carefree life of a middle-aged flirty bachelor, the film struggles to evoke the emotions and just keeps floating on the surface without making any impact even in its supposed to be emotional climax.
As an official remake of an Argentinian comic drama IGUALITA A MI (Just Like Me/2010) JAWAANI JAANEMAN actually falls flat as here the otherwise critically acclaimed director Nitin Kakkar questionably follows the most repetitive and typical format of Hindi filmmaking presenting everything with a forced Punjabi backdrop, using Punjabi characters, dialogues and songs too without any justification at all.
To give you an idea, after more than two hours of the story based in London, revolving around a Casanova bachelor father and his newly found young unmarried daughter who is pregnant, we hear a traditional Punjabi song playing in the backdrop singing, “Madhaniyan, Kinna Jammiyan Kinna Ne Lai Jaaniyan” (talking about the daughters being married and moving to their new home). Perhaps the Mumbai filmmakers have this song being referred to them frequently by someone in their teams as recently Karan Johar added the same in his funny-cum-horror section of Netflix’s GHOST STORIES too. As a matter of fact, this overdone obsession with Punjabi songs added anywhere and everywhere clearly points towards the present Hindi films being made keeping two different markets in mind, more stressing upon the foreign market.
At times these kinds of deliberate Punjabi inclusions work when they provide fairly good entertainment, but in this case the film keeps hanging in the mid and falls short of being either an entertaining or an emotionally enriching soulful exerience as per its subject. Among the most irritating of it all turns out to be the mismatching loud background score heavily playing notes which are often heard in the routine Punjabi comedy movies.
Cannot say what kind of film the director actually wished to make in entirety – a comedy or an emotional family drama?
Because in the present format, JAWAANI JAANEMAN appears to be a confusingly made film as a not so heavy, light hearted project most probably following the strict instructions of the production house targeting the multiplex audience who normally come to the theaters to just have a good time. As a result, the potential fresh and emotional plot suffers and gets lost in all the routine and seen-before elements forcibly added by the writers without giving any deep thought. For instance, the inclusion of Kamlesh Gill as the old lady, her association with a tree the builders wished to get rid of, was so cliched and should have been replaced even if something similar was there in the original made a decade back.
To be honest, expected a much better film from Nitin, the name behind films such as FILMISTAAN, NOTEBOOK, MITTRO and the unreleased worth watching RAM SINGH CHARLIE, but this surprisingly proved to be the weakest film of the director without any doubt. Moreover, a forgettable film of Saif Ali Khan and Tabu too, wherein Saif keeps acting in the same old (earlier) style stepping back into his comfort zone, even reperforming his cult track Ole Ole from the 90s and Tabu doesn’t even get some appreciable scenes or lines in her short (undisclosed) special appearance.
Having said that, JAWAANI JAANEMAN still has two bright features in terms of performances coming from the younger ones namely Alaya (confidently playing the charming daughter) and Kubbra Sait (as Saif’s hair dresser friend). The film actually becomes watchable because of these two faces more than anyone else including veterans Farida Jalal, Kumud Mishra and others.
Summing up, this can easily be rated as a film that one will certainly not mind watching it on an online portal, but spending Rs.250-300, watching it in the theatre making an extra effort might not be worth for many as it wasn’t for me. The subject surely had the potential pointing towards parenting, middle age crisis and youngsters’ unsure affairs, but the makers missed the opportunity of converting it into a worth recommending film.
Rating : 2 / 5 (And that too mostly for the two girls instead of the known lead couple)
