Tag Archives: Sonu Nigam

Jal (2014)

My rating – 2.5/5

Lets start by appreciating the film Jal – and probably the ONLY way to do it is by praising its visual quality.

The desert used as the backdrop, most of the visuals in Jal are truly artistic and well choreographed. The beautiful wide shots of Flamingos, the swift diagonal movements of the camera tracking the camel runs, the raw beauty of the village girls, the thirst of the dry arid grounds – cinematographer Sunita Radia did an excellent job.

 

Now before the praises dry out like the water in the film let me assure you that the basic concept of the film is also worth mentioning.

Rann of Kutch is the place where people as well as Flamingos die every year due to the scarcity of sweet water. When a team of foreigners comes to save the dying Flamingo chicks the film raises the valid question of who will save the thirsty people – the villagers of that region?

Bakka (Purab kholi) is renowned in his village as the water-God as he has the ability to predict the spot where water can be found (after lot of digging of course). Now the film is about the ‘karnamas’ of Bakka – his success, his love, his sex life, his friendship and his failure. How long can he keep finding water? Even if he can will it save his pregnant wife’s life?

 

The prime enemies of this film are poor editing and lack of efficient dialogues (probably also the lack of capability to deliver dialogues effectively).

One must understand that excessive use of black-dissolves as transitions can be equally harmful for your film and as well as for our eyes.

Girish Malik, the debutant director offers you a perfect rural cocktail – comic sequences, gritty action, dramatic thrill, desi love story, foreign skin show, enough sexual content – all punched in together. But his heavy dependence on visuals without the support of a crisp story line and meaningful edit has let him down.

To finish on a good note Sonu Nigam and Bickram Ghosh did a splendid job as music composers. And often Shubha Mudgal’s deep voice becomes your best friend in the darkness of the cinema hall.

Just for the sake of the stunning visuals I will say it’s a one-time watch but again at your own risk.