Director Suresh Triveni’s thriller drama with intense screenplay is high on performance and slow in narration. The emotions of the film are stable yet it fails to engage the audience with the story.Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah starrer Jalsa is a thriller drama about guilt and inner conflict of values and human conscience. This suspense thriller has a great hook to the story but forgets to peep inside the box.
Plot
The film is based on a celebrated journalist Maya Menon (Vidya Balan) and her cook Ruksana (Shefali Shah) who are in a conflict of conscience. Maya unfortunately hit-and-run while on her way back to home. This incident pushes them over the edge of humanity as they both try to handle the situation differently.
Story/Screenplay/Direction
Director Suresh Triveni has penned story and screenplay with Prajwal Chandrashekhar. The story began with an intense scene and hooks the audience that built a notion to follow the similar pace throughout. However, the movie unfolds at a slow pace into a slice of life of two classes and turns into an unexpected twist, something that is a bit unbelievable reaching at such a position. Not to forget Amitabh Bachchan’s 2010 movie Rann which ended in a similar fashion of guilt.
The film isn’t too long but it looked like the director just wrapped it around the present life of both the characters. It didn’t narrate the back story of the characters nor did it delve much into their past lives. The screenplay was good with the kinds of shots taken and edited into scenes to present a wholesome emotion of sombre life. The second half of the film turned a bit boring, nonetheless, the climax scene was nerve wracking as it left me ponder what will ‘she’ end up to.
The direction of the movie is sober, although it could have included more transition of their lives instead of mere focusing on emotions and dilemma between the morality of two classes to show a stringent effect on humanity that led to a bit of unconvincing writing.
Performances
The film has a strong casting with lead characters Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah. Vidya Balan’s performance is like another character of Durga Rani Singh in Kahaani. She sank into the character completely as a gutted journalist, subtle as an individual who was vulnerable and cold in the little-little things after the accident like shivering of her hand. Quite a decision maker in her house, she was caring and empathetic. Overall, her performance was powerful and worth watching.
Shefali was effortless with her acting especially with her hard-hitting expressions. Her performance makes sure to leave you on the edge as she outshines every time she appears on the screen. Shefali deeply understood the role of character’s work life and personal life and acted balanced in both the situations. It is always a treat to watch both on the screen and together they just magnify the performance of the film.
Apart from Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah in lead, there were other prominent actors in the film including Iqbal Khan as Amar Malhotra was bossy yet friendly. Rohini Hattangadi as Rukmini, Vidhatri Bandi as Rohini George, Manav Kaul as Anand were equally good. Special mention to Surya Kasibhatla and Shafeen Patel as Ayush Menon and Iqbal Mohammad, respectively were strong with acting.
Overall
The trailer of this film was better than the gruelingly convincing film. The story and screenplay struggle to engage the audience, survives due to the significant performances of the cast. Other technicalities like editing in the film is warm and is well blended with the tone (narration) of the film. The story by far has a different and fresh concept with a social dilemma of right and wrong, questioning the inner conflict of human conscience and a stage of guilt in life. Produced by Tseries and Abudantia Entertainment, Jalsa is available on Amazon Prime Video from 18 March 2022.
Published By :- Shubham Agarwal
Edited By:- Khushi Thakur
