Bankipur gets a new Supertendent of Police, Abha Mathur(priyanka chopra) amidst the hustle bustle of malevolent election campaigns. Things go haywire after the MLA’s(Manav Kaul) younger brother Dablu Pandey(Ninad Kamat) rapes a local girl sunita(Vega Tamotia) after she refuses to sell off her land for the proposed power plant site. This agitates the local villagers and they decide to hang the bad guys from trees and electricity poles. The rest of the story is how Abha Mathur makes situation under control and makes sure justice prevails in Bankipur.
Prakash Jha brings in a plot that is repeated several times in several movies. Even this movie brings uncanny similarity to his previous enterprise Gangaajal in some scenes. Jha is well known for his pick of fresh social issues so why an old plot and masala this time?
Moving to the performances, Priyanka Chopra does a decent job as a tough lady cop but her performance and the meat in her character of Abha Mathur is not even near to Amit Kumar potrayed by Ajay Devgun in Gangaajal. Sometimes she appears unrealistic and too sexy for a tough female police officer specially in the lathi charge scene and the fight in the end. Her uncomfortability in those action scenes can be clearly seen on the screen. She might have been prey to the flaws of the Action Director(Sham Kaushal). Special mention to Prakash Jha who launches himself in this movie as a corrupt police officer who has a change of heart after he realises he has only danced to the vidhayak’s tunes all his life. Prakash Jha steals the show with his power house performance as Bhola Nath Singh. The scene where he confronts the chhote vidhayak to arrest him is the one to look out for(I’m sure you can’t stop yourself whistling). Manav Kaul is great actor who makes justice to the character of a bihari vidhayak. First Wazir and now Jai Gangaajal, Manav has already a great year. Ninad Kamad is decent. So are Rahul Bhat, Murli Sharma and other supporting actors.
The music by Salim Sulaiman is passable but the background score helps keep the movie engaging. Editing by Santosh Mandal could have been better. Chopping some 15 odd mins could have made the movie much tighter and engaging. Cinematography Sachin Krisn is decent. I really want to ask Jha Saab why so many scenes were shot in the dark? The dialogues are raw and acid soaked and are lovely to the ears then actors like Priyanka Chopra, Prakash Jha and Manav Kaul mouth them.
On the whole Jai Gangaajal is a one time watch but the Women’s day occasion may work wonders for the film. Go watch this movie if you have nothing else to do or you are not quite into the Asia Cup.