'Jazbaa' review: Overly green-tinted script that limps

Genre: Thriller

Rating: **1/2

Cast: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Irrfan, Shabana Azmi, Jackie Shroff

Director: Sanjay Gupta

Language: Hindi

This crime thriller sure feels like Aishwarya's comeback film. Inspired by the South Korean Seven Days, Jazbaa revolves around a divorced lawyer, who dotes on her pre-teen daughter. With an enviable success record, she obviously knows her way around the 'justice' system. However, her world crumbles when her daughter goes missing and the kidnapper makes it clear that instead of money, he wants her to defend and free a felon (Chandan) who faces rape and murder charges. Enter Inspector Yohan (Irrfan), a decorated but suspended police officer. He accompanies her on this mission to make her case and free her daughter.

As she delves deeper into the case and meets the victim's kin (Azmi) and tackles politicians also embroiled in the case, she comes to the realisation that the case is murkier than what appears on the surface.

Gupta is known to be stronger with technique than story-telling, but this overly green-tinted script limps along only on the foundation of screeching car sequences and emotionally-charged showdowns between his accomplished lead cast. Aishwarya is rusty at the start, but eventually appears to get the bearings of the dual aspects of her character. Once in the groove, her eyes emote her maternal instincts well. Irrfan rushes through with clap-trap Kamlesh Pandey dialogues, the cheesiest one possibly being — Mohabbat hai is liye jaane de raha hoon, zidd hoti toh baahon mein hoti. Ultimately, Aishwarya gets tons of screen time, but after that five-year hiatus, she could have chosen better.

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