P.s. Why eight you may ask. Quite frankly, i got bored after that.
the story, script & screenplay: it is a remake of telugu superstar, chiranjeevi’s stalin. Perhaps, the concept of network marketing was novel then. Not so today. More worryingly, the episodes of the first half(where salman’s character helps various people) do not add up in the end. Thanks to the half baked script and shoddy writing. As a result, there is not a single memorable character in the entire film
the direction: sohail khan showed signs of promise in his debut film pyaar kiya to darna kya. But since then, he has made inane, insipid and strictly avoidable films. And regardless of the box office fate of jai ho, he will always remain an also-ran.
the action: the film has an overdose of action, especially the second half which has almost half an hour of non stop fights. And it was crucial that these were imaginatively directed( like in dabbanng) but alas, not one of them inspires awe except for the fight scene after his sister is molested which is ok. No taalis, no seetis
the songs: among the three khans, salman khan’s films have always had the best music( right from love, maine pyaar kiya & pathar ke phool to his biggest blockbusters like hum aapke hain kaun, tere naam and dabbanng). Sadly, the music by sajid-wajid is pedestrian apart from the apna kaam banta, bhaad me jaaye janta song
the leading lady: after rishi kapoor, salman khan is another actor whose films have launched the maximum heroines. Some were good( revathi, sonakshi, raveena) but others were plain bad( sneha ullal, zareen khan) daisy shah clearly belongs to the latter category. If pallavi sharda was last year’s worst big budget film debutante, this year, it is daisy shah.
the performances: thanks to the listless characterisation, all actors seem like caricatures. Even the ethereal tabu and the usually dependable danny do not make any impact. The kid who plays salman’s nephew is the only one who does justice to his role.
the technical crew: be it the camera work, editing, sound or the background score, all barely pass muster. But they cannot be blamed for it is usually the director who shepherds all these departments.
the entertainment value: sorely missed is the tongue in cheek comedy which has been the trademark of salman’s films. What we get instead is crassy toilet humour( there is a running joke about the leading lady’s inner clothing that is extremely distasteful)
But wait, the one thing that jai ho has going for it is.(no prizes for guessing) salman khan. Nobody can dare deny the fact that he is hindi cinema’s superstar in the truest sense of the word. Not srk, aamir, big b, rajesh khanna or even the great dilip kumar had this quality. Reason being that all the past stars had a great team of directors, writers, musicians among others who contributed immensely to their success. The success of the angry young man persona of big b would have been impossible without the writer duo of salim-javed. Likewise, kaaka’s success was largely due to the great music of the father-son burman duo. But if you look at salman’s films, especially in the last few years, they have worked only and only because he was in them. Some of these were so bad, no other actor could have saved these films, let alone made them blockbusters. Having said that, surely salman deserves better. Imagine a salman khan film with rajkumar hirani directing, co starring deepika and with music by a.r. Rehman.
rating: 1.5/5
I will stick my neck out and predict that this film will get nowhere near aamir’s dhoom 3 at the box office and might in fact be his first commercial failure in a long time. But knowing his legion of fans, i might just be proven wrong. Only time will tell.