Jail
Hindi (U/A) Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Manoj Bajpai, Mugdha Godse, Arya Babbar Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Right from the first scene where the hero enters the jail to the end when he is finally set free, you feel the plight and helplessness of life in the jail. The hero Parag can be anybody. The story of a man being wrongly implicated for a crime and ending up in jail to suffer hardships is not very uncommon in films. However, it is the treatment of the story that is different here. This film has the MB (Madhur Bhandarkar) touch. Yet again, he succeeds in putting across a strong message in his own inimitable style.
Parag (Neil) has a happy life with a good job and a steady girlfriend, Maansi (Mugdha). Everything is going well till he is arrested for drug peddling. The legal process in India is very slow, tells Nawaab (Manoj Bajpai), a jail inmate to Parag and Madhur takes two hours to put this point across. In the process the movie becomes a tad slow and repetitive at times. Neil has done a good job; he succeeds in looking the innocent victim. Mugdha is best left to the ramp. She seems uneasy onscreen and makes the audience uneasy in turn. Arya Babbar has given an excellent performance. Manoj does not have a demanding role. The music does not play much of a role in a film like this. Yet the songs are good and well-timed. This may not be a feel-good, light movie many look for but is definitely the kind of movie one should have more of. Welcome to the grim, real and thought-provoking world of MB...
