#Jai Gangaajal - Arresting movie or just another cop show?

 Priyanka Chopra had a top release last week; Series 2 of #Quantico. 

It’s on DStv and it’s a winner. And from her weekly tweets, episode by episode, it’s obvious how dearly PC wants it to work.

Although she tweeted about this movie, it’s not really received the kind of attention that some of her other work going on at the moment has, but then there’s plenty of exciting happenings in her life right now; The Oscars, Baywatch and a burgeoning Hollywood career.

Thankfully PC is still dabbling in some Bollywood and long may that continue, because with every Hollywood move she makes - we’ll be watching her, and with every move westwards a little more focus will be directed eastwards towards Indian cinema, and that's good for Bollywood's place on the global cinema map.

So to Jai Gangaajal a follow up (not a sequel) to the 2003 movie Gangaajal which had Ajay Devgn in it, and there are similarities. Ajay played a police officer posted to Texpur district in Bihar to restore law and order, Priyanka is posted to the Bihar town of Bankipur, where law and order has been compromised.

The similarities pretty much end there but I've seen this plot somewhere before..

A wannabe chief minister is corrupted by two brothers, who use him to drive their own evil agenda. The brothers have the local police force on their payroll, and their main man BN Singh (Prakash Jha who is also the director) has thrived to such an extent that he literally enables them to get away with murder, in return he lives way above his pay grade, the kind of life that only the mega rich or the mega crooked can afford.

Police chief after police chief is dispatched until a young graduate Abha Mathur arrives to sort things out. Her arrival is a catalyst that sparks a revival of morality in her own department but it also coincides with the public finding its voice, however reconciling the two is not so straight forward. 
The public want to take law into their own hands, while the police who the public has lost all faith in want to hold onto law and order. 
But can they re-establish the faith?

The plot in the beginning is as predictable as the EFF causing a ruckus in parliament but then comes the twist as Mathur challenges Singh to right his wrongs, and to turn honest cop. 
From this point onward the plot focuses more on him battling his inner demons, and although it drags on for way too long it is the more interesting part of the movie. 
Prakash Jha's performance stands out.

As for Priyanka well she is just too honest an actor not to give her all for any role and while her investment into it is noticeable, her character is completely one dimensional, and on top of that way too smooth, too sophisticated to make it career defining.  There are more nuances to her part in Quantico and thats down to just one thing, writing.  

This role could have been and should have been career defining as I can't remember too many female cop roles that stand out, and here’s the strange thing it is so one dimensional that it could easily have been played by Ajay Devgn. I know I’m entering a dangerous territory here as I may be accused of being sexist on the one hand or anti-Ajay Devgn on the other so let me explain myself…

Strong female roles are the flavour of the month in Bollywood right now, which is fantastic in this period of the film industry’s evolution, but a strong woman’s role doesn’t need her to do what a man does, it requires the essence of her womanhood to be the basis of the strength that is required to portray overcoming whatever situation confronts her.

Take the example of Deepika Padukone’s character Piku, she is single minded, a bully, back chats her old man, abuses the taxi company for what she considers as their being tardy. She’s a strong character with a great amount of determination but the essence of her womanhood never disappears, the depth of emotions are always apparent, her empathy, her concern, her stress, her grief, everything about the way she reacts to situations differs from how a man would react. 

Deepika’s role is so well written and performed that it dispenses any stupid notion of the so called ”weaker sex”, in fact it speaks of an incredible depth of character, the kind that effortlessly evokes respect.

Now what if the role in Piku had been written for Ajay Devgn? He would have beaten up the taxi driver, ordered his father to pass his motions or else… and carried him all the way from Delhi to Calcutta. 
And the knife scene would have been a fight scene.

That’s the difference and that is why I am suggesting Ajay Devgn could just as well have played Priyanka’s role because seeing her beat up multiple goons single-handedly pushes the whole plot towards the realms of the improbable if not the impossible. 
The show of anything resembling emotion is limited. 

And yet Priyanka is an actor I am full of admiration for, and you can see why - she struts through the part brimming with confidence, and although it’s a one costume, light make up, hair tied back into a pony tail kind of role there’s hardly ever a hair out of place even though such perfection amidst the dust and blood and gore looks contrived. 
She's good in the role but I can only imagine how good if it was better written.  

I recently heard Nouman Ali Khan say to one of his classes, “If you want to survive in the world you must understand the genius of evil politicians, the corruption of regimes, their tyranny, their deeds, the best of them and the worst of them.” Jai Gangaajal demonstrates that, what it fails to do is to afford Priyanka Chopra a chance to show why the strength of a woman and all the unique skills that she possesses are enough to make a difference in carving out a better world, and that’s either a real pity or me just having too high expectations of an arresting movie rather then just another cop show.