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.
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