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Movie Review: Karan Anshuman on ‘Jism 2' and ‘Shuttlecock Boys'

by Karan Anshuman (Filmmaker/movie critic)|Posted on Aug 5th 2012| Rating

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Karan Anshuman (Filmmaker/movie critic),

Karan Anshuman is a film critic for Mumbai Mirror. He's worked on a bunch of movie projects, none of which you've ever seen...yet! He's a history, photography, squash, web 2.0, food, and gaming enthusiast who would trade his soul to travel the world.

JISM 2: All Body, No Soul

Director: Pooja Bhatt: ; Cast: Sunny Leone, Arunoday Singh, Randeep Hooda, Imran Zahid

Rating: A

2 Stars

For a film that opens with a quotation from the Book of Job, Jism 2 is staggeringly bereft of depth and short of content. In what is essentially a rehash of Bhatts’ own movie, Gangster, Jism 2 follows a well-trodden path with a witless story that hinges on. Not sex but some computer data.

A government agent (Arunoday Singh) is assigned to chaperone a porn star (yes, Sunny Leone plays a porn star but this is only mentioned once in an opening VO and has absolutely no bearing on the film. She could be a lipstick salesgirl and it’d be of no consequence) as she draws out a soldier-turned-rogue terrorist (Randeep Hooda) who’s hiding in Sri Lanka with his precious data.

The writing is the big letdown here. If you take out the songs, speed up Hooda’s leisurely drawl, and snip away Leone’s chest heaving masquerading as drama you’d be left with a ten page script that takes place in a resort that could’ve been anywhere in the world. Out of these ten pages, eight are explanations in dialogue, mostly by Arif Zakaria. Why this has to be done, what has to be done, why it must be done later and not now. In case you don’t get these explanations (boredom being the main reason), you will be helped along the way with unnecessary flashbacks with songs for added measure. Either show or tell. Preferably only show. But please don’t tell and show and do it again.

Then there is the dialogue: twisting itself in ways unimaginable so that the word ‘jism’ may be uttered. Mulk, wafadari, something. jism, something, jism. All this makes clear one thing: there is no content. Pooja Bhatt has nothing to say in this film. Jism 2 is little more than a launch vehicle for Sunny Leone’s cleavage.

The characters themselves are one-dimensional. When they’re angry, they stomp off to the bar and pour themselves 30 ml of whisky. If they’re really angry, they cry. We are privy to no chemistry that explains why Arunoday falls so deeply in love with this girl and Leone herself makes for a rather lame flame to Hooda’s moth who shows the insect’s intellect when he chases her to the ends of the earth across the resort’s campus and leaves himself open to compromise. Don’t for a moment forget this is about retrieving the data. And the data could’ve been retrieved on multiple occasions. But that’s not what you bought the ticket to see, is it?

Unfortunately, whatever reason you might think you have for buying a ticket to watch Jism 2, it’s not there. What you will get is this: a slow, oversimplified and boring film with minimal action (of either kind). And here is what you really want to know… Sunny Leone in a word: overrated.

SHUTTLECOCK BOYS: Poor Man’s Rocket Singh

Director: Hemant Gaba; Cast: Aakar Kaushik, Manish Nawani, Vijay Prateek, Alok Kumar

Rating: U/A

2 stars

Four young boys with unfulfilled aspirations play badminton in their colony across a net that changes height every evening. They come from similar backgrounds and have one common feature in their lives: their careers are going nowhere. When one of them loses his job, the four decide to start a catering business.

The fact that Shuttlecock Boys has a Rocket Singh feel to it is indisputable. The ode to entrepreneurship and honest self-motivation is a theme not nearly seen enough of late in Hindi cinema. Yet, SB falls short on far too many counts and can hardly be compared to the genius that is Rocket Singh.

For an indie, the concept and story lacks freshness and surprise. Hardly a moment here you can’t predict. The writing is languid and the actors do their lines no favors with their staccato delivery and long, unnecessary pauses that has little to do with their characters.

The precipitation of the central crisis is not urgent enough. Everyone is too easily convinced to go with the plan (one that is plucked out of thin air) despite some stubborn posturing from one quarter. And once events are in motion, there is an all-too-familiar struggle with an all-too-familiar ending.

Indie filmmakers are no strangers to working with no budgets, and more often than not they make up with innovation and smart filming. Unfortunately with SB, the lack of resources shows. There is no uniform aesthetic, the camera simply captures what it can. The support cast is awful and almost make the leads look good.

The honest (naïve?) approach of the protagonists of the Shuttlecock Boys is but a reflection of the makers’ effort in many ways. A film that seems essentially a filmmaking exercise manages a bonus release. You can salute the spirit and wish them the best for the future, but you can’t help but come away from the film a little disappointed.