Subhash K. Jha speaks about Jai Veeru

I remember Kunal Khemu as this hot-blooded illegitimate son of a matinee idol in Zakhm who fights a lonely battle on his mother’s behalf. In the film, Khemu grew up to be Ajay Devgan. In real life, he grew up to be a promising wannabe superstar in Rohit Jugraj’s Superstar. Then Kunal lost his way. Look where he finds himself today! Jai Veeru is just not cinema at its most appalling, it’s worse. It tries to be smart and sassy without possessing basic the writing and speaking material to make its two heroes look heroic. No wonder Khemu and his colleague Fardeen Khan end up looking like a couple of morons on the prowl. Guys who have nothing better to do than to ogle at idle-rich chicks and eye other people’s money and property. One steals cars and woos Anjana Sukhani on the Goan beaches. The other fires guns, gets one in his forehead and lands up in hospital with Dia Mirza playing Florence Nightingale….nurse-nurse mein agan. While the characters find their bearings, you wonder what the script writer and the director have been doing. Probably checking out the latest DVDs of Hollywood films to incorporate chase sequences and fights into that 2-hour merry-go-‘wrong’ that’s Jai Veeru. Why did they bother? You ask yourself after the first hour. By then 3 (or is it 4?) of Bappa Lahiri’s item songs have swished by in rapid-fire succession. Bappa is no patch on Pappa Bappi. His music says nothing to us. But we can’t blame the poor wannabe composer. His songs are part of a film that’s so wannabe it makes the week’s other releases look like major classics in comparison. It would be foolhardy to comment on any of the performances. But I’d like to say one thing about the bum chum bonding between the two leading man. If this is ‘dosti’, then, bring on the ‘dushmani’ any day, I say!