On various #OTT platforms most of the stuff is of thriller genre and there is one more addiction ‘#Jalsa’. Director #SureshTriveni, who earlier gave us a family entertainer ‘#TumhariSulu, has come up with a thriller this time. This women centric film mainly revolves around Maya (#VidyaBalan) and Ruksana (#ShefaliShah) who are interconnected with an unfortunate incident. The director plays with the emotion of forgiveness and the class divide in the society and the differential treatment meted out to them. Dramatical events and emotional uproars are delicately and deftly handled. Whether one can forgive a murderer of a loved one is debated upon but in a very subtle way. Importantly the film is not preachy despite commenting on divide that exists between different strata of the society. It’s a plus for ‘Jalsa’.
Maya Menon (Vidya Balan) is a celebrated journalist who is firm about her views and isn’t scared to ask difficult questions. She is an extremely loving single mother of a specially abled son Ayush (Surya Kasibhatla) who in turn is fond of his father (Manav Kaul). Her mother (Rohini Hattangadi) and her house-help Rukhsana Mohammad (Shefali Shah) take care of her son and the house. She flirts with her boss Amar (Iqbal Khan) and two are fond of each other. One late night while returning from work she dashes into a girl and runs away. Despite being a feisty and courageous journo, always fighting for people’s rights, she is terribly scared to admit to this hit-and-run case. Actually the victim is none other than Ruksana’s young daughter. To wipe the guilt Maya transfers her to a private hospital from a government hospital. Her boss wants to cover it up but an intern Rohini George (Vidhatri Bandi) from their office has some evidences about that incident. Maya doesn’t have the courage to tell Ruksana the truth and when Ruksana comes to know about it, takes a drastic step. What transpires in between is the crux the story.
The runtime of Jalsa is 128 minutes which keeps a lot of things hanging. The writer and the director had time on their hands to have presented the back stories of the characters which could have justified their behaviours. Some of the dialogues are strong which highlights the emotional uproar in character’s minds. The director without wasting time engages the viewers with the main incident. The sub-text successfully talk about the imperfections prevalent within the system of politics, police, media. The divide between the underprivileged and privileged class is subtly demarcated. But the director has wrapped up the film quickly maybe because some pages from the script went missing.
The lead artistes Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah has delivered outstanding performances which uplifts the films few rungs. Vidya Balan, as usual, nails the boss lady character. She has the opportunity to show variety of emotions, viz, a loving mother, a rebellious daughter, a no-nonsense boss and a vulnerable person after hit-and-run incident. She scores with some superlative acting which is a delight to watch. Shefali Shah too delivers a perfect performance. She has given a restrained performance and most of the times she performs with her eyes. Others like Rohini Hattangadi, Iqbal Khan, Manav Kaul, Vidhatri Bandi and a specially abled Surya Kasibhatla lend strong support.
Jalsa has two powerhouse performers Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah and it entertains reasonably well.
Rating : ***
