Jail Movie Review

Madhur Bhandarkar movies are always known to be hard-hitting and agonizingly real. Jail is no different, it is a typical Bhandarkar film and deals with life inside a Jail.

Parag Dixit (Neil Nitin Mukesh) lives a life, most would dream of. He’s extremely ambitious, has a great job, a steady relationship with girlfriend Mansi (Mugdha Godse) but life takes a ugly turn when a casual drive back home with his room mate, finds him behinds bars filed for possession of Narcotics. No fault of his, just at the wrong place at the wrong time. From a luxurious lifestyle to being exposed to the brutality of a Jail and its authorities, Parag fights a loosing battle against the system. His only support is Nawab (Manoj Bajpai), his jail inmate who believe that Parag is innocent.

Parag’s emotional journey through hope and despair forms the rest of this intriguing tale.

Jail Review

Why Jail is a must-watch

  • What works for Jail is Bhandarkar’s rather unbiased take on the system. He has cleverly avoided cinematic clichés seen in most jail related scenes like third degree torture, homosexuality (although one scene does indicate oral sex) and instead emphasized more on the emotions of his lead character.
  • The jail environment is realistically captured which manages to frighten the hell of you. You can’t help but wonder, what if Parag were you? Nothing can be more depressing, more painful than watching an innocent, trapped in a Jail for no fault of his. With Parag being one such, you connect deeply with his character.
  • Neil Nitin Mukesh delivers an award deserving performance in Jail. With limited dialogues and plenty of expressions, Neil gets into the skin of his character and conveys plenty through silence.
  • Majoy Bajpai is fantastic. This highly talented actor deserves more roles, he’s been missing for a while now.
  • Mugdha Godse does well in a short role.

Bhandarkar makes you think

  • Does an individual, with a clean past, actually deserve Jail hell until proven guilty by the court? Especially when the very environment can turn an innocent into a criminal.
  • Do they deserve the excessive mental and physical torture?
  • Will there ever be a solution to our dreadfully slow Judicial system?
  • How many Parag’s are still trapped in those various filthy jails in our country?
  • What about the convicts family, especially when he was the sole bread earner?
  • Jail also makes you value the smaller things in life and more importantly value freedom! Freedom to live your life the way you want to.

Jail – not without flaws

  • The writing of the court scenes are poor, infact Parag’s first lawyer is funny with his dialogues. Was it intentional? We hope not.
  • The movie isn’t for the faint-hearted. The excessive rejections of bail, although real, gets quite depressing.
  • Music is poor. Songs and item numbers, while good for the front benchers in single screens, were unnecessary.

Bhandarkar takes you into a world that you would never wish to be a part of. But a couple of hours to experience Parag’s journey, the journey of someone who represents the innocent is well worth it.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Did you watch Jail? Do post your reviews below

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    29 Comments

    • Indicine Team :

      I am leaving a comment for the first time, but I keep reading each n every review you post.

      I want to appreciate that you people always give genuine reviews, and are not biased by the pupularity of the cas n crew of the movie.

      The only website I trust, is Indicine. You should be proud of it.

      Thanks for your work.

      Kind Regards.

    • thx God indicine that u liked atleast one movie after a long time and gave 4 stars. can this movie work on box office coz apkgk took a fantastic start in its 1st day and it is ranbir’s biggest open among his all 4 relases. jail is not releasing in sydney so i hv to watch for dvd and it will very bad for me coz nail nitin is one of my fav.
      indicine: can he get award on his brillient performance and if u compair him with ranbir who is batter ????
      movie took a normal avarage start i think it wont be get success on boxoffice but this movie can get critical claim.

    • Long time? Have you checked out our London Dreams review? :)

      Box office would depend on the word of mouth. If its strong, it could do decent business. Unfortunately, in our industry only popular performances from popular actors get awards. So Neil wont get it this year, could get the critics award though.

    • SO it seems like we got some really good performances this year from lead actors: You have Neil in Jail, Ranbir in Wake Up Side/Ajab, Shahid Kapoor for Kaminey, Saif Ali Khan in Love Aaj Kal, Salman in Wanted. You can probably even throw Abhay Deol for Dev D, Farhan Akhtar for Luck by Chance, and maybe JOhn for
      New York.
      Which one do you guys like best?

      And we still have some big releases left for the year!!

      Note: Akki missed out because I didn’t think his performance was awardworthy in Kambakth ishq, CC2C, or 8X10. Although he can get nomination for villan/supporting actor for Blue. Also Salman can get nominated/award for supporting actor for london dreams.

    • Shahid for Kaminey, Ranbir for APKGK, Neil for Jail would be the pick. One of these should win, its most likely going to be between Shahid and Ranbir unless Aamir starts attending award functions…!

    • INDICINE TEAM:Ranbir for APKGK??????Hahaha…then akshay should have won for Bhool bhulaiya,welcome,Singh is king,Heyy baby,bhagam bhag ……

      Where gone salman whose performance in WANTED n london dream was superb!!!!!!!!!

    • JAIL- wat a superb movie:) just loved it… went to watch ajab prem ki but it was housefull…

      JAIL a very fine movie with fantabulous performances.

      Story- its simple but told in a very gud way.

      parag dixit(neil nitin mukesh) has a gud job, sexy GF(mugda godse), lovin mom. he s happy n shares his room(house) with his friend.

      his friend who works as a salesman does drug deals from parags mobile. one night wen parag picks up his frnd police start chasing his car. his frnd tries to escape n back fires d police. police fires at him n he goes into coma. police find 3cr worth cocaine in parags car.
      but nw parag gets arrested n tortured for a crime which he has not done.

      this s hw it starts. he s put in jail.

      movie shows al types of ppl inside jail. startin from gangsters to d innocent ppl.

      truly this movie s amazing.

      Jail s d journey of a innocent parag who goes thro al problems inside jail n hw he finally gets out of it.

      Performances- Neil has given truely a award winning performance. manoj bajpai s also superb.

      Its very emotional n touches ur heart. If u wer in his position wat u would have done wat u would have gone thro.. thats wat s shown..

      its really sad some r charged for a crime that they `ve not done..

      Rating- 4/5

      may not work well in box offfice bcoz of ajab prem ki.. but i truely recommend this.

    • recommended. neil is awesome natural pure actor.

      hello sudeep ?? how are you beta ?. still dossing about are we ??

    • First time everyone is appreciating a movie. Would like to see this movie. Hope I am not disappointed. Thanks for the review guys.

    • Mugdha has only a “short role”? Thanks for that info. Better stay home. Was hoping to see her in a substantial part.

    • Story line of this movie reminds me of an old Alan Parker’s movie Midnight Express (about life in Turkey prison). So nothing new there. The difference is that hero in Midnight Express is not innocent.

    • Indicine Team

      am very disappointed dat u think Shahi/Ranbir/Neil r gonna get da award dis year.
      have u forget about Salman performance in WANTED and LD.
      hez never won it in 20 years. do u honestly think dem 3 got better chance dis year plz let me know

    • saju:
      when veer will release on 29 jan i will ask from u how many stars and u will say not more then 2 . it is realy bulshit movie dont wait for it if u wants to wait for a good movie then u hv to wait till 9th april 2010 and . and u know batter that which movie is releasing on 9th april.

    • I knew it I knew jail would be great, and with that review, am petty sure it would be awesome. Neil Nitin became my favourite after new york, and am pretty sure jail would be one of the best. I have waited for this movie all year.

    • hmmmm…i hv seeeeeeeen bth…apkgk as well ass jail….azab prem ki…was man bullshit..songs kome out frm anywer……ranbir is 5n….bt jal rocks…guys…jails the best pik of the year till now….although dev d was gud 2….bt apkgk was made by santoshi just to get sme money….kozzz hizzz fewww pikzzz like halla bol,bhagat singh…hvnt worked out well..

    • @ Nauman which movie is releasin on 9th April
      uve really showed how pathetic u r by slamming VEER. no promo no nothing and u think its shit. BRAVO MY MAN BRAVO.

    • Good and fantastic Jod being done by Indicine Team. I never seen any reply from any website team. Today I saw Two reply’s for the comments posted by regular INDICINE WEB BROWESER.

      Thanks for letting us know that your team do see our comments andreply to it.

      Now onwards I try to check the reviews only on Indicine.com

      Thanks once again.

    • It is the best movie so far by Bhandarkar , I don’t know about the BO but this film will remain forever in my mind . Neil is awesome in this movie!! Its a must watch :)

    • As I expected.. the movie is a sensitive touching story.. a good direction, a good performance by Neil Mukesh.. how old is Niel in the industry? 2 years old only.. and he signed for such a difficult role!! we’ve to salute him.. he risked his career by doing this movie, but I think he was so confident there4 he did it.. and he did a good job according to his age in the industry.

      It’s a movie as I expected.. that I will leave the theatre and i’m in a deep thinking, left it with tears in my eyes.. didnt want to speak with anyone, didn’t want to turn on the radio or listen to some music while I was driving.. just thinking of the movie! this happened to me when I watched Umrao Jaan ( the remake) I left the theatre and I was in a deep deep thinking, sad, and the story touched my heart.

      Manoj Bajpal.. a good actor.. there’s a depth in his character.. he’s not so good looking but he got his charisma on screen, but why he’s not doing lots of movies indicine Team? I loved his role in Zubeida.

      Jail is good for ppl who love serious movies and touching stories.. and believe me.. it’s not boring at all.. some ppl hesitate to watch because they think they might get bored.. but no.. I’ve enjoyed watching it.. and because of the good direction u don’t get bored.. and worth watching on a big screen.

    • hey heloo..well this is my first comment on any movie..this muve is a must watch n a blockbuster man lvddd it niceee..plxx can u mail me the lyrics of this moves song sayan wai plx plx ill b thnkful 2 u

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