Jigra review: Alia Bhatt powers engaging prison break thriller

Vasan Bala balances populist storytelling with smart filmmaking, and mostly succeeds

Alia Bhatt delivers a stand-out performance as Satya Anand in the Bollywood film. Photo: Dharma Productions

In 1993, Dharma Productions – then led by Yash Johar – produced Gumraah, a prison break drama directed by Mahesh Bhatt. It stars Sridevi as a singer who is wrongfully convicted of drug trafficking while on a holiday with her boyfriend in Hong Kong.

More than 30 years later, Vasan Bala’s action thriller Jigra, produced by Johar’s son Karan, stars Bhatt’s daughter Alia Bhatt, who takes on the role of Satya, a woman whose brother (Vedang Raina; The Archies) is wrongfully convicted of drug trafficking while chasing a career breakthrough with his friend.

On paper, the narrative doesn’t just share similarities with Gumraah – which itself was a Bollywood version of the 1989 Australian mini-series Bangkok Hilton starring Nicole Kidman – but is also a successor of sorts to multiple attempts at the prison break narrative archetype, both in India and around the globe.

In anyone else’s hands, it could have been just another movie. But with writer-director Bala, however, Jigra stands out thanks to its strong emotional core – and a devastating turn from Bhatt, whose nuanced, understated performance powers the film.

Bhatt navigates her role as the protective sibling effortlessly. Her chemistry with Raina balances realism and melodrama. It makes it easy for viewers to both relate to and root for the siblings to cross the finish line.

While the movie’s melodrama quotient does, unfortunately, overstay its welcome sometimes, especially towards its end. Bala makes sure audiences are given a macro-perspective of both the prison politics and Bhatt’s interpersonal relationships with some unlikely allies in her attempts to help break her brother out.

However, Jigra is not all dour. Some wild Easter eggs honour memorable Indian films – Satya’s ally, a retired gangster played by Manoj Pahwa, jams to tunes from Prakash Mehra’s 1971 drama Zanjeer. In one scene, he also wears a T-shirt that reads "Urf Professor", the title of his 2001 movie by Pankaj Advani, in which he played a hitman dubbed the “Professor".

Pahwa, for his part, is unsurprisingly excellent and his comic timing is only succeeded by the everyman restraint that makes him the amiable, relatable person he is.

The Easter eggs don’t end there. In a hilarious turn that’s played straight, three unseen prisoners are announced for specific duty rotations, named John Woo, Wong Kar Wai and Kim Ki Duk – also the names of influential filmmakers across Asia whose crime dramas and action thrillers have explored many facets of human relationships in a chaotic world.

This is very on-brand for Bala, whose fourth-wall-breaking action comedy Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota was consistently and effortlessly tongue-in-cheek about the Bollywood strongman action hero.

It’s unfortunate, though, that the same can’t be said for this movie; it’s not a smooth ride and often feels frustrating.

Jigra is probably Bala’s weakest film, making some stumbles trying to balance populist storytelling with solid filmmaking. Still, there’s so much to love about it; knockout turns by the cast, cinematographer Swapnil Sonawane’s visually dazzling symbolism and incredible character writing are among the many little assorted flourishes throughout its runtime.

It’s not an incredible film, sure, but for those looking for a good time out, it’s still a smartly made and mostly engaging thriller.

Jigra is screening in cinemas now