Jugaad - 2009

Story

Putting together a real-life incident on celluloid isn't everyone's cup of tea. The sealing issue in Delhi hit headlines, causing tremendous grief and heartburn to people who were affected by it, besides hitting them financially.

One expects director Anand Kumar to portray the facts with complete understanding, more so because the film is based on producer Sandiip Kapur's real-life experiences. But writers Bunty Rathore and Priyank Dubey make a complete mess of what could've been an interesting cinematic experience.

The problem is simple. You just don't feel the pain. You just don't feel for the person whose life has gone upside down.

The writing is so half-hearted that the film fails to hold your attention once the story takes off. It wouldn't be erroneous to state that the goings-on are boring and outright predictable, save the penultimate 15 minutes.

In a nutshell, JUGAAD tries hard to be different, but falls flat due to its poor writing and direction.

Based on the MCD sealing in Delhi, this is the real first-hand experience of the successful CEO of an advertising agency. The MCD locks the doors of the advertising agency under the sealing drive. The successful CEO uses his best connections to influence the MCD officials, but nothing succeeds.

Thus begins the journey of Sandiip [Manoj Bajpai], left alone on the roads with his team [already looking for greener pastures]... towards struggles unforeseen. The film narrates the jugaad [trickery and connections] done by the protagonist to re-establish his agency from scratch.

Real-life stories should ideally translate into riveting cinematic experiences, but JUGAAD is a major letdown in terms of writing, execution and even acting. Frankly, the issue is trivialized due to inept writing. It was a major issue, but it comes across as a petty incident. Even the Govind Namdeo track [dual role] looks very formulaic. Sachin Gupta and Krishna's music is equally uninspiring.

Manoj Bajpai should refrain from such riff-raff. He's an incredible actor, but why is he, of late, limiting himself to such films? Hrishitaa Bhatt has nothing to do. Vijay Raaz goes over the top. Sanjay Mishra tries really hard. Nitin Arora is a non-actor. Govind Namdeo is as usual. Mushtaq Khan is fair.

On the whole, JUGAAD is a good idea gone terribly wrong. At the box-office, it stands no chance.