Jal

Saw this movie at IFFI, Goa and was really blown away. Here is a film that sets new standards for Indian cinema and makes me feel proud. Great VFX, amazing concept, superb drama, and based on a real problem.What sets it apart is how it balances so beautifully the entertainment with the real issues of environment and water scarcity. At no point does it get preachy. You feel a real connection with the place and the people and get emotionally involved with the film. It's thoroughly entertaining and makes you laugh and cry and yet when the film ends the message is loud and clear. It makes you realize the importance of water in a very real and personal way. The emotional impact is so huge that I could not get myself to waste water after I came back from watching the film. I will definitely look forward to the future works of this director. Apart from the beautiful story, the visuals and background music are the other strong points of the film. The visuals are mind-blowing and simply stunning. The background music is very nuanced and beyond anything you could hope to hear in Indian Films. It's really world class and comparable to the best in International cinema. This film is such a breath of fresh air compared to the commercial crass or the pretentious so called intellectual cinema.

This film is meaningful but it probably won't work out nowadays on the big screen...people want stuff for excitement and entertainment nowadays....action, masala, etc.

Jal is the story of a diviner who helps the govt drill borewells to provide water for his village in Kutch, a place where water is so scarce that neighboring villages are always at loggerheads for it. But then things turn out bad because of greed.

It has a great concept but like I said, social films seldom do well.Maybe it's made just for awards, I donno...location is good, there is natural acting, you feel you're in the place itself seeing all the happenings. Songs are just OK according to me. Purab acts well, not like a modern young man that he usually acts as in films. This one is contemporary.

Should be worth a watch.

A brilliant piece of work by a newcomer. Kudos to director Girish Malik for venturing into meaningful cinema instead of opting for the crap being created by so called 'big production houses'.

The movie has a mix of everything; good story, a civic message, good music, fantastic performances by known & unknown faces, a bit of light hearted sequences & dialogues, some action, scenic locals, excellant visuals and scenes to make it an 'A' certified Movie.

Definitely deserves a watch.

I would actually rate JAL a 10 if only this terribly tragic O'Henry - esque tale had been shown better. Not sure where the fault lies because the plot is great, the visuals are fantastic, the acting good, the settings more than superb.

Everything was great but the tragedy that plays out in the latter half just does not come through tragically enough - for want of a better choice of words.

If Kutch Tourism needs a boost, then it should screen Jal on TV often enough. I saw this today on YouTube after having seen Parched yesterday which is also set in Kutch, with Tannishtha Chatterjee aptly portraying the key female role in both films. I saw the Jal movie on the same YouTube page as Parched and decided to watch Jal today.

Must say that in both films Tanishtha could easily pass off as a Kutchi village woman. Great job, she surely deserves to be given more films in Bollywood. The scene where she offers herself to the villain Punia to save Bakka's heavily pregnant wife from being raped, is outstanding and superbly filmed in an understated manner that nonetheless conveys it all.

The cinematography is fantastic, beautifully showcasing the mud hut villages, the starkly beautiful arid desertscapes, the flamingoes, the camels, the people, the parched land, the essence of Kutch, it all looks so real.

The twist in the tale O'Henry ending is also superb. This is a movie where the real villain laughs all the way to the bank while the real hero and the real heroine go nowhere.

Overall, this is a must watch film and not just for the Kutch visuals.

Watched movie JAL today.

I was having very less expectations from it but heard that its good and seem to watch once when i had seen its trailer, but after watching it made me to write a review about it.. I think this movie took Bollywood to another heights.

Acting, Cinematography, Script, Screenplay, Music everything was too good. Background score and its lyrics was written by sonu nigam & one other guy. Yup u heard right. its sonu nigam and he did superb job.

Before interval it has everything, Romance, Fun, Drama and after interval movie geared up. I like how the movie ended and set a punch in climax. Purab kohli, Tanistha chatterjee, Kirti kulhari, were perfect in their roles.

I think everyone who likes to watch some different and really appealing quality movie should watch this one.

My rating - 4.1/5