The exterior façade of Central Jail has been a significant setting in Hindi films with characters making exit from it for years now. But beyond that Bollywood has had quite a conventional portrayal of the prison. Madhur Bhandarkar's depiction of Jail goes beyond the clichéd images of chakki-peesing prisoners and convicts rupturing rocks in films. But then again the film lacks the Bhandarkar brand of shocking eye-openers.
Parag Dixit (Neil Mukesh) is leading a perfect life with a decent job and a loving girlfriend Maansi (Mughda Godse). Until one day when he is falsely implicated in a drug case and lands behind bars. Life changes overnight for him as he is exposed to an entirely new environment where he is supposed to survive while his case continues getting postponed in the court of law. Life expectedly is difficult inside the jail where he makes new friends including a convict warder Nawab (Manoj Bajpai) and Ghani (Rahul Singh) while living on hopes that he would be bailed out of the mess.
Most Madhur Bhandarkar films work on two levels. Firstly while unveiling the harsh less-known realities behind his chosen sphere of interest. Secondly how his protagonist reacts to these realities, resulting into the shaping of story and character conflicts. In Jail, he falls short on detailing the internal intricacies of imprisonment and the story gets slack with no distinctive graph to the character conflicts.
The writing by Madhur Bhandarkar, Manoj Tyagi and Anuradha Tiwari is genuine in terms of representing life inside jail. Barracks are crammed with convicts beyond its capacity, cops are bribed by prisoners, underworld operates even from inside, inmates indulge in homosexuality and doctors provisionally bail out detainees to government hospitals. But come to think of it, with the prison premise being so often exploited in films, most of it is common knowledge to the audience unlike Bhandarkar brand of shocking revelations.
Coming to the graph of the narrative, the plot is flatly reduced to Parag's pursuit for freedom which tends to get repetitive after a point with no ups and downs to the drama. The end is all the more convenient thereby denying the film a basic climax. That confines Jail to the feel of an extended documentary and the emotional connect isn't as poignant as films in similar setup of lockup like Nagesh Kukunoor's Teen Deewarien or the small film from across the border Ramchand Pakistani. Even Sridhar Raghavan's Ek Hasina Thi that wasn't essentially centered on the prison exploited the jail setting more effectively.
A major highlight of Madhur movies is the interesting array of supporting characters that he employs to good effect. Jail doesn't score high even on that note though it had tremendous scope to have an assortment of side-characters. There is the clichéd covetous criminal lawyer, a jailor constrained by higher authorities, a convict bores with his constant commentary of shayaris, another predicts future and so on but none amuse. The warder Nawab's soft corner-at-first-sight for Parag appears too fake and filmi. Also Nawab's flashback account appears too formulaic. The initial reel that Madhur squanders on Neil-Mughda's intimacy could have been rather utilized to portray Parag's upper crust lifestyle thereby serving as a subsequent contrast to his imprisoned life.
The unsuspecting average man characterization of Parag Dixit who lands up in unexpected trouble makes you relate to the protagonist for his vulnerability. Neil Mukesh does a decent job as the helpless victim though he occasionally struggles in emotional outbursts. Manoj Bajpai is restrained as compared to his other recent acts and plays his part perfectly. Rahul Singh is effective though his character is short-lived. Arya Babbar and Chetan Pandit are passable. Mughda Godse doesn't have much to do.
Compare Jail to Madhur Bhandarkar's earlier works and you would be disap
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11:41 PM on November 06, 2009
