Judaai

Judaai a serious family drama with romance and comedy. In short cut, this movie is about a Girl who loves a married man with kids so much, she makes the wife an offer. The offer is that she becomes the second wife, they live happily and the first wife gets 2 crore (Million). The offer gets accepted after a few incidents. What follows is a little serious scenes and a few comedy scenes. Anil Kapoor gives a great performance, but his character is so stingy. He works as an engineer with decent wages, but doesn't buy basic household things including a Television. This is not realistic, this kind of character must be a bore. But, the director has managed to make him look like a Great fellow, no one but me is complaining (and his first wife). Sridevi (Anil's real life sister in law) plays his first wife who adores money and reputation. Sridevi is one of my old time favourites and delivers a Brilliant performance. She should of received Best actress rather then the pathetic Karishma Kapoor in Raja Hindustani that year, famous for bribing awards. Urmila is a talented actress in a good performance. We have Three Great comedians in Superb roles including Kader Khan, Paresh Rawail and Johnny Lever. This is worth the watch.

As much as I would like to, I cannot recommend Judaai to my friends unless they did not mind fast forwarding whenever Johnny Lever shows up. The story line to Judaai is fascinating, production values are top notch, songs are good, and, as always, Sridevi, Anil, and Urmila are at the top of their form. All other serious supporting roles are good. Then there is the comedy if that is what you want to call it. It frequently brought the plot to a screeching halt and, after the first hour of the film, I almost gave up but decided on fast forwarding the rest of the comedy sections which I should have done earlier. I enjoyed the comedy in Dil Chahta Hai and Awara Paagal Deewana and even like the Johnny Lever characters in Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya and Sirf Tum, but cringed every time Johnny Lever et. al showed up in this film. I gave the film a 6 only because the comedy sequences were so irritating and lengthy. Had the film just focused on the drama and inserted comedy about Sridevi's new found wealth, I would have given it a 9.

I mean, come on - a woman sells her husband? And on top of that, the husband has no objection? Which woman would sell her husband? Which woman would want to buy a man? Which man would be ready to display himself for sale? It's a big joke. The film does have something that partially works, maybe it's the naivety of the mainstream, escapist, and not-always-realistic Hindi cinema. But it falls short soon. The main idea and the entire story make it look pathetic. Anil Kapoor is ordinary. Sridevi, despite delivering a generally good performance with a nice mixture of comedy and drama, is annoying and unbearable at times. I mean, you need not be a complete idiot to make a convincing poor and rural housewife. It's not her fault, it's the director's insistence to make her a court jester. Urmila is perhaps the best of the lot, and she plays the simple rich girl endearingly. Well, Judaai is not that bad for a one-time watch, and I believe some would enjoy it. My say - watch it if you are ready to go through moments of sheer stupidity.

For viewers looking for a somewhat traditional Bollywood movie, I would not hesitate to recommend this movie. Viewers do need to keep their expectations in check as there are some aspects that may seem unrealistic. The main plot is also rather dragged out but the various sub plots involving the comedians do add humour and good entertainment value.

Sridevi plays the role exceptionally well and it is difficult to see anyone any actress playing this role as well as she does. She naturally adds humour to the character and towards the end acts the role of a desperate wife rather well. Urmila and Anil Kapoor also play their roles well.

The movie is a standard 3 hour watch, but time quickly flies by and the soundtrack is rather catchy. Overall this is a must watch!

Judaai is not bad at all for what it is - a typical Hindi movie. I actually saw it back in the day but I just re-watched it, and thought it deserved a good review.

The story is quite interesting, albeit a little over the top. The acting from Sridevi and Urmila is very good. The part Sridevi plays is a tough one but she holds up amazingly well. Urmila's role is more generic but her acting is still worth mentioning. Anil Kapoor does OK. There are a good number of side actors, mostly comedians, who do a good job as well. The soundtrack isn't bad overall even though I only really liked two of the songs. Finally, I thought the dialog was very good, almost unexpectedly so.

If you enjoy Hindi movies from the 90s this is a shoe in.