Jagga Jasoos movie review: Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Saswata Chatterjee, Kiran Srinivas, Sayani Gupta, Saurabh Shukla

Director: Anurag Basu

Rating: 1.5 stars

meet up intrepid boy detective Jagga. And bumbling girl reporter Shruti. These two go sleuthing through a series of picturesque spots, when not contravention into song, dodging bad guys hot on their trail, and averting the third world war. Okay, I made the last one up. But in the near-three hours of the run time of ‘Jagga Jasoos’, there’s everything else, with Ranbir and Katrina chase bent spies, arms dealers, and sundry other smaller fry, while, of course, economy the world.

Trouble is, in its zeal to put jointly novel locations and from abroad hot spots, ‘Jagga Jasoos’ forgets to give us a story. The good-looking leads are left to fend for themselves in a sinking plot. What we get, with the exception of a few smiley moment, is a long, dull roam. You get the feeling that somewhere along the way, in their intention to create a fun-filled, quirky ride, the filmmakers lost their way. Because all the rudiments that would make up a zany Tintin-esque ( Jagga sports a sideways quaff, just the way Tintin does) adventure have been painstakingly gathered – imposing production values, attractive spots, and a real-life event ( the Purulia arms drop, which created such a sense back in the mid-90s) to give it heft.

A solid, attractive plot would have been just the ticket for both the film and hard-working hero ( the leading lady mysteriously swings both ways : in some part she seems very much a part of the proceedings, and in others just sleep-walking through her scenes). Done right, it would have been the world’s first pleasant-sounding spy thriller.

There’s something attractive about the way it begins, with Jagga’s origin story. How a little boy with a speech injury wins the heart of a good-hearted man ( Chatterjee) who vanishes, and how that little boy grows into a smart young fellow whose school-going moments seem to be filled with cracking cases one after the other. Except Kapoor is too old to pass off as a school-boy. And the bits between his purported teenage self and the pretty bumbler of a journo, who goes bumpity-bump through tough terrains, get a little doubtful.

The best part of the film is sandwiched between the young Jagga and Chatterjee. A couple of the spanking songs are great fun. That’s when the movie speaks in its own voice : in the rest, it is trying to be a desi Spielberg with no any of its verve.

At one point in the film, a nature is made to ask : bore ho gaye na? The answer, of course, is : haan bhai haan.