Romantic Comedies with a desi touch is a happening trend in Bollywood of late. In recent years, Bareilly ki Barfi, Stree, Badhai Ho, Tanu Weds Manu Returns et al have entertained and also set the cash registers ringing. Jabariya Jodi, starring Siddharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra, is the latest entrant to this genre. However, the film leaves a lot to be desired.
Set in Bihar, the film deals with the bizarre practice of forced marriages in the state to counter atrocious dowry demands. So, whenever the groom’s family demands a huge amount in dowry, it forces the bride’s family to turn to Hukum Singh (Javed Jaffrey), who gets the groom kidnapped, for a forced marriage at gunpoint. This ‘noble’ task is executed by his son Abhay Singh (Siddharth Malhotra), a typical rough-and-tough bloke who also has political ambitions.
The bold Babli Yadav (Parineeti Chopra) enters the frame in this backdrop. She has a childhood connection with Abhay, as the two were in love during their youth before Babli’s migration to the city. On reunion, there is a possibility of the spark reigniting, especially with Babli being keen on it. However, it also means a tough choice to make for Abhay, who has other ambitions in his mind. Will the duo’s love succeed against the odds? You need to watch the film to get the answer to that.
Although the theme is relevant, it would have been preferable to go the satirical way than an out-and-out comedy. In Jabariya Jodi, the problem is that everything in the premise is used as a tool to make the audience laugh; and, to an extent, it works due to the ensemble cast. However, post-interval, the film loses steam. It’s almost as if Sanjeev Jha’s fuel tank of ideas got emptied at the interval point itself. In fact, some of the comedy sequences in the film seem contrived.
The film isn’t without positives. Siddharth and Parineeti share a wonderful chemistry between them, and although their Bihari diction is highly inconsistent, their combination scenes are reasonably entertaining in the first half. Mind you, Siddharth does look miscast at times for a small-town ruffian, but he complements Parineeti well, who has enacted this bubbly-hyper character many times before, even in the duo’s previous outing, Hasee Toh Phasee, five years ago.
Among the support cast, veterans Javed Jaffrey and Sanjay Mishra do their bit, but it’s Aparshakti Khurana who takes the cake with his hilarious act as Babli’s best friend. If Jabariya Jodi was made as a serious film, it would have probably worked. But in taking the rom-com route, it struggles to find the balance between comedy and drama, the poor writing exacerbating it. Eventually, the film (whose title translates to ‘forced couple’) ends up forcing itself on the audience.
