Jaago Review

There are only two kinds of movies that can depress you. The ones that get everything right and the ones that get everything wrong. But the makers of Jaago weren't going to satisfied with just a badly made film. They were going for all-out fultu tasteless. One must congratulate them for doing such a thorough job of it.

The problem isn't any of the usual ones like mediocrity, inanity and banality. All of those would have been excusable. What isn't is the two hours of unadulterated lurid BS that Mehul Kumar churns out.

And what makes it doubly reprehensible is what it uses as its subject: the real-life story of a 9-year-old girl who was raped by three men in a Mumbai train, in full view of the other people in the compartment. Jaago is meant to educate our society on the implications of child rape and on our role in battling it. A great idea, no doubt. Except that it has every last drop of sensitivity squeezed out of it by the cast, camera and director.

You're introduced to Shruti and her parents at the start of the film. Like other Mumbaiyyas, Shruti takes a train to school everyday. One day she's kept in after school for dance practice, and gets locked in by mistake. By the time she's rescued and gets to the station, it's past midnight.

In the meanwhile, her mother (Raveena Tandon) is worried frantic. On the train, three young junkies get into the same compartment as Shruti. They look as clueless as the rest of the cast. After a couple of joints, they decide on the spur of the moment to rape someone. After some deliberation, they pick on Shruti, and there follows the most painful sequence in the whole film. Third-grade porn has been made with more finesse.

Vulgar in its total lack of imagination, crassly stupid in execution, and around four days long, the molestation scene is your cue to walk out and buy a short-term amnesia pill. All through the scene, a family of three in the same compartment watches on with expressions of extreme discomfort. One of them looked like she could snap the three guys in half with two fingers, but chooses to snatch glances and look mildly scandalized. Brilliant casting.

An unconscious Shruti is taken to hospital, where she dies. Because the case is high-profile, the police are pressurized to nab the culprits immediately. Manoj Bajpai (at least he looks like that guy from Satya) is put on the case.

The rest of the movie is about the parents' fight for justice. All pertinent issues like corruption, politics in prison and the slack judicial system, are dealt with in the same dumbass way as everything else. If your enemy sinks low, you sink even lower - this is the general theme. The simplicity of it all makes you want to sit down and weep.

Raveena Tandon dresses like a streetwalker to "lure" the rapists - that should give you an idea of the scriptwriter's sensibilities. Later in her emotional courtroom scene, she declares she'd rather her daughter died than live with the shame of rape. Great job with the social education, guys.