Slow burn tale of greed and grandeur

Jubilee (Hindi/Amazon Prime)

Director: Vikramaditya Motwane

Cast: Prasenjit Chatterjee, Aparashakti Khurana, Wamiqa Gabbi, and Sidhant Gupta

Rating: 3/5

Before the era of satellite television and pre-release carpet bombings, it was not unusual for movies to start off badly at the box office only to pick up pace later and become ‘jubilee hits’. Vikramaditya Motwane’s ‘Jubilee’ follows a similar path.

The makers take their own sweet time to set up the story, much like the maverick studio head Srikant Roy (Prasenjit Chatterjee), who is on a seemingly endless search for the ‘right’ Madan Kumar, the name of the hero of his new movie. Who eventually ends up playing Madan Kumar and what this leads to is the foundation on which is built this emotive narrative populated by a whole host of characters whose ambition, talent and avarice is on unabashed display.

This is the Hindi film industry of the 1940-50s — low on technology, high on passion, with first movers often doing terrifically well or terribly badly.
‘Jubilee’ too is a series that is often terrific but sometimes, and puzzlingly so, terrible. Motwane’s world building is top-notch — the sets (which apparently had to be constructed thrice, thanks to multiple lockdowns), the slow-burn cinematography and the attentive use of light and shadows, all fuse together to make this tale of greed and grandeur an immersive experience. Acting wise, this is Aparashakti’s best outing till date but whistles go to the old-reliable Ram Kapoor playing a sleazeball financier, and newcomers Sidhant Gupta and Wamiqa Gabbi whose layered performances add great richness to the story.

Music by Amit Trivedi is a hat tip to many iconic Bollywood numbers — from Raj Kapoor’s ‘Awara hoon’ to Dev Anand’s ‘Mein zindagi ka saath’ to Guru Dutt’s ‘Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaaye’ — and the songs are an unexpected treat to music buffs who miss being serenaded by K L Saigal, Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt, Talat and the likes.

On the other hand, the easy (lazy?) use of Hinglish (did people really speak like that in the 1950s?) and certain contrived situations make you wish the scriptwriters had paid a little more attention to detail.

Despite its faults, Jubilee is a must-watch — if only to reconfirm to ourselves that the magic of the movies is as powerful as it is ephemeral.