Jabariya Jodi Movie Review: From childhood to teenage, Abhay Singh (Sidharth Malhotra) and Babli (Parineeti Chopra) fancied each other. Circumstances (and a little peck) keep them apart till they meet as adults. By then, Abhay, who harbours political ambitions, is neck-deep running his father (Jaaved Jaafery)'s business - groom-napping aka Jabariya Shaadi. They kidnap eligible boys in Patna and get them forcibly married to girls whose father's can't afford the hefty dowry. All for a fee. Abhay and co think that they are negating the crime of dowry, without knowing they are committing a bigger crime. Box Office Prediction: Parineeti Chopra and Sidharth Malhotra's Jabariya Jodi To Witness an Average Opening at the Ticket Windows? Find Out!

During one such Jabariya wedding, Babli and Abhay meet again and they rekindle their romance. But Abhay, who has seen the kind of swine his father is (and yet had no qualms in following him), is afraid of commitment. In between, Babli's father (Sanjay Mishra) seeks a Jabariya Shaadi for her, and it is Abhay who takes charge for that. But this creates a bigger mess for everyone and a hurt Babli decides to teach her non-committal boyfriend a lesson he never forgets.

In Jabariya Jodi, we have a hero, if you want to call him that, who specialises in forced marriages and a heroine, if that tag applies to her too, who thinks that's the last thing to worry about him. Unlike the underrated 2010 film Antardwand that shows the disturbing implications of this crime, Jabariya Jodi makes amusing gags out of the practice.

Don't get horrified at that thought, you saw it in the trailers and you know what you are getting into. Yes, there is sermonising towards the end on how bad the activity is, how one sin cannot undo another, and the hero and his gang have a change of heart. But the core problem is, no one really understands the consequences of what they do, as the movie never shows what happens to these jabariya couples after their weddings. Instead, we get a romance that is as predictable as it comes. Jabariya Jodi Gets Postponed to This Date! Will Sidharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra Starrer Get Advantage of Bakra Eid 2019?

Despite this very romanticisation of groom-napping, I admit I really enjoyed the first half. And the credit for that goes to Raaj Shaandilyaa's witty dialogues and how director, Prashant Singh, uses his extremely talented ensemble. From veterans like Jaaved Jaaefery, Sanjay Mishra and Neeraj Sood to dark horses like Chandan Roy Sanyal and Aparshakti Khurrana to the actors who play Babli and Abhay's friends - each performer offers enough moments of mirth. Even the leads, Sidharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra, let their hair down and have fun with their characters. Special mention has to be given to Mukesh Chhabra for choosing the right actors for the role.

With dialogues that range from satirical (like trolling how prohibition in Bihar is being misused) to being just plain witty, you will end up chuckling despite yourself. The humour also makes you almost forget how illogical and nonsensical the main romantic entanglement is, that defies logic and has characters behave either totally dumb or inconsiderate or plain evil.

And then the makers commit a huge blunder - they made the second half, serious and elongated, and in the end, tiresome. By focussing more on Abhay and Babli's romantic conundrum in all its seriousness, Jabariya Jodi shunts its supporting ensemble as mere spectators and thereby losing any of the spunk the movie gained in the first half.

Babli giving Abhay a taste of his own medicine was a terrific idea. But the scenes that follow, when Abhay decides to retaliate and Babli goes along with it, make us scratch our heads figuring out what these two chowderheads want from each other. I am also horrified at how Jabariya Jodi casually infers 'rape' (without taking the word) and later playing sexual perversions for laughs.

With humour and the wit shoved away, it dawns upon us that most of the characters in the film are unsympathetic persons. Abhay is this ego-driven saffron wannabe (a scene has him barge into a theatre on Valentine's Day to drive the couples away), who never gets to be empathetic. Babli's initial spunk, like most of her Bandra-styled costumes, is misplaced in a film, where we still can't figure out why she is besotted with a man who didn't show one good deed the time they are together. Also, she is plain dumb too, who does not bother to check who she is getting married. Actually, blame that on the huge cinematic liberties that Jabariya Jodi often takes.

Even her father, whom the movie wants to portray as a sympathetic man, is no less a bigot who doesn't bother to show his daughter the picture of her future groom. Much blame falls on the confused characterisation. Picture this, in a scene, Abhay's friend Guddu (Chandan Roy Sanyal) talks how there is no meaning in marriages if there is no love. A couple of scenes later, he is at the forefront in trying to separate two lovers. All this leads to a very shoddy and filmy climax at a wedding venue, where characters change their stances faster than you say 'Aila'!

Prashant Singh, who previously directed a few television shows, isn't a bad director. I would really like to give him credit for some of the movie's clever flourishes. In a scene, when Babli riffs off DDLJ and tells Abhay not to 'Palat' and he does exactly that, in her room, we see a poster of Chennai Express, which of course, stars Shah Rukh Khan. At one point, Abhay is compared to Arijit Singh for sounding forlorn and later, Arijit Singh himself croons a sad romantic song (which is in Punjabi, even though, neither the setting nor the characters are). A stall in the town calls itself 'Murg Donald'. Or that graffiti in front of Babli's house that is both a safe sex advert and a tribute to a Manoj Kumar film.

Watch The Trailer of Jabariya Jodi Below:

Even if the core premise of the film is about practising a crime, Prashant had in him to make a clever comedy out of it. But the film-maker is let down by some formulaic, half-baked writing (Sanjeev K Jha) that brings Jabariya Jodi to its knees. Even technically, the movie is meandering. At times, the visuals look very polished and at times, we feel some of the scenes have been shot on an 8MP camera phone. The makers also should have trimmed some of the length in the second half and got rid of a couple of songs. Though some of them are pleasant, like "Khwabfaroshi".

PS: There is a drinking game hidden in Jabariya Jodi. If you want to get seriously intoxicated, gulp down a peg everytime Abhay Singh repeats his name. And if you to get seriously drunk with a two-day hangover, do the same exercise every time any character utters the word 'Jabariya'.

The Performances

Sidharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra do their best, but are let down by their muddled characterisation. Sidharth's attempts to sound Bihari is decent, but there is much swag in his act that's distracting. Parineeti Chopra starts off on a promise -we think she is the Bihari version of the lovable Dimple Chaddha of Ladies vs Ricky Bahl. By the time the movie ends, she ends up being the Bihari version of Jasmeet Kaur from Namaste England. Alas!

The supporting cast, as I mentioned before, is just too good, and they shine even in the lowest moments of the film. Jaaved Jaaefery is quite commanding as Abhay's sleazy, morally corrupt father. Sanjay Mishra and Neeraj Sood bring down the house when they are together. Chandan Roy Sanyal is good, even if his character remains nothing more than a loyal sidekick. Aparshakti Khurrana is on the verge of getting typecast and is seriously threatening Jimmy Sheirgill for the title of 'king of friend zone', but he has some really great lines.

Yay!

- The Cast

- The First Half

- The Dialogues

Nay!

- The Romanticisation of a Crime

- Cluttered Screenplay

- Tiresome Second Half

- WTF Climax!

Final Thoughts

It is quite strange in a movie about groom-napping, that it is the 'Jabariya' of the title that provides some of the fun moments, and the 'Jodi' that lets the movie down. Jabariya Jodi is entertaining when it plays for the laughs, but goes horribly messed up when it amps up the romance. At best, a passable one-time watch, if you can keep your butts Jabariya on to the seats in the second half!

Rating:2.5out of 5

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 09, 2019 02:16 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).