Jail

With Jail, Madhur Bhandarkar continues his take on reality. This time, he looks behind the closed bars of a jail to look at the stories that reside there.

Parag Dixit (Neil Nitin Mukesh), a financial whiz- makes money by the plenty and lives life to the fullest with his air-hostess girlfriend Mansi (Mugdha Godse) in tow. Unfortunately for him, his roommate turns out to be a drug peddler and operates without his knowledge. The police catch Neil and accuse him of co-conspiring with his roommate, who lies in an ICU, in a coma.

Falling prey to the notoriously slow judicial system, Parag ends up in jail, still pending trial. How he handles this new environment, and the stories of other individuals that inhabit the world behind bars, makes up the crux of the story.

The basic premise of 'Jail' is one that can be claimed to have been lifted from a Jeffrey Archer novel, or the countless masala movies that are churned out of Bollywood every year. Where it differs is in the portrayal of the jail, forever consigned to be fairly open cells housing 1-2 prisoners, 'Jail' shows them for being what they really are. But unlike some of his earlier ventures, the exposes and the inside look ends there. There is nothing new that Madhur uncovers here: the underworld, the wrongfully-in-jail characters, the politicians holding court have all been seen before. Another problem is that the characters are too stereotypical. The good boy, the bhai's henchman, the gay couple seem out of a story and not real life. And that is where 'Jail' falters.

Madhur Bhandarkar is known for his brilliant direction that keeps us motivated to sit through potentially depressing themes and stories. While this is his least depressing venture till date, he fails to deliver the same brilliant speed and sense as always.

Neil Nitin Mukesh does a good job of portraying Parag, the man who is wrongfully incarcerated. It takes an immensely brave man to take up a role which is so challenging in nature. He's on screen for more than 90% of the screen time, going through so many different emotions, and also the much-talked about nude scene. He makes Parag believable. Kudos to Neil.

Mugdha Godse gets very less scope as Mansi, but manages to do a decent job. Manoj Bajpayee as Parag's sympathizing co-inmate is the narrator of the movie, but somehow gets only a perennially sad expression to work with. He manages to still pitch in a good performance. His performance in the flashback sequence is his high point. This has to be expected though, with the film showcasing and focusing on Neil throughout.

The music in 'Jail' is simply there to make up the numbers. Even the legendary Lata Mangeshkar's 'Daata Sun Le', though rendered as well as her songs are, could have been done without. 'Bareily ke Bazar mein' is absolutely useless placement wise and is only just bearable in terms of song quality.

Kalpesh Bhandarkar captures the jail well on screen, giving the viewer as if he's looking at a sea of humanity and brings home the gruesomeness of the jail. Nitin Desai should bag the award for the best art direction unless a Sawariya or Devdas like set comes up in the movies coming up in the next month. The jail is incredibly well etched out, right down to the wall carvings.

Final Verdict: Overall, Jail is only slightly above average. Watch it on the big screen only if you must. Wait for a TV release in my opinion.

It may not be a hit in BO but it is one of those few films which stays in your heart forever. Neil Nitin Mukesh is amazing in this movie. The movie rests on the strong shoulders of Neil Nitin. He has excelled in his performance.

Parag Manohar Dixit (Neil Nitin Mukesh) is a successful executive, living with a roommate who is a bit of a weirdo — his mobile phone always seems to have a poor network whenever the guy is in town, and he constantly uses Parag's phone. Parag's air-hostess girlfriend, Manasi (Mugdha Godse), warns him against the weirdness, but Parag laughs it off, saying that such things (he even uses Parag's underwear and towel occasionally) are normal with bachelors.

But it's not so simple: one evening, Parag picks up his roommate from a pub and the cops get after them. His friend opens fire on the cops and is critically wounded by the police, and drugs worth over a crore are found in the vehicle.

The world goes upside down for Parag: he is remanded in police custody; a greedy lawyer sucks money from his mother (Navni Parihar) and girlfriend like a leech drawing blood; and once incarcerated, he gets to stay in conditions and an environment that he never had imagined before. His roommate lapses into coma and soon dies — and with him, seemingly, Parag's acquittal on a serious drugs charge seems a remote possibility, especially as many bail applications are rejected.

The long battle begins and soon, Parag is broken, shattered, a programmed automaton who suddenly gets into frenzies and vicious temper bouts. The inmates in jail all have one common thread: hope, irrespective or whether rich or poor, innocent or guilty, law-abiding or lawless and sentenced or awaiting trial. And Parag will never be the same again, but life-term convict Nawab (Manoj Bajpayee) would want him to be the same man when he goes out a free man and not get embittered or even lured by in-jail mafia that operate along with corrupt cops, represented by Karim (Aarya Babbar) and his clique.

Some people say that the scenes in jail and the atmosphere created by Madhur Bhandarkar is very claustrophobic but that's how it should be ! There was no scope of music in this kind of movie but the songs are very intelligently woven in the film, My fav are Data sun le & Milke youn laga. As a whole it is a must watch film !

In life some moments end up obtaining the status sacrosanct. No matter how hard one attempts, they cannot be relived and any attempt to recreate the magical moments go futile. The same would applies to Madhur's "Page 3". In hindsight it serves the purpose of being an yardstick, a guiding light force, a benchmark simply to aspire but never surpass.

"Page 3" created a genre which signified a fine balance of ingredients of parallel cinema doused with commercial sensibilities. Madhur's subsequent outings were attempts to fit into this genre but his every passing milestone were getting over-weighed by commercial temptations. "Corporate" and "Traffic Signal" to a certain extent carried the soul of "Page 3" but with "Fashion" it was transparent that the voice of "Page 3" was silenced and in his recent outing "Jail" the voice has perhaps died of extreme suffocation.

"The Green Mile", "Teen Deewarien" and "The Shawshank Redemption" are the thought that would spring into the mind as you watch "Jail" especially the latter with Manoj Bajpai reprising the role of Morgan Freeman. Indeed the stark reality, the rustic look and nexus is portrayed with utmost perfection. Sadly the plot fails to bear the weight and the seams begin to give away with each passing reel.

Performance wise, everybody is spot-on. Its difficult to segregate between the actors and the actual inmates.

˚ Niel: Gets a role of his life-time to showcase his talent in full glory. Sadly, as mentioned earlier the writing fails. Commendable is his commitment to get into the character and thereby gets an authentic look. And yes, the way his character gets implicated warranted better writing.

˚ Mughda: Seemed her character was more of glam-doll. And quite cinematic for her to stand up to the protagonist right from first frame.

˚ Manoj: The character did not have much meat in it therefore he appears to akin to a goat peering his eyes into the camera.

˚ Arya Babbar: Leaves an impression.

˚ Navni Parihar: Except to stand next to Mughda, her character served no purpose (probably pre-meditated the "Saas-Bahu" equation well in advance!)

˚ Atul Kulkarni: Very small role.

Whilst the "Page 3" ending was a realistic ending, the wrap-up of "Jail" is so commercial (on the same note even "Fashion" was).

It's a great movie, it deserves at least 7/10..........................

I know Madhur Bandharkar movies don't interest the masses, since his movies are realistic as hell. His last outing, Fashion, was on the contrary a bit different, but still Madhurs style. Because I really liked I checked out Jail, and im not disappointed at all! Jail has great performances by Neil Nitin Mukesh, Manoj Bajpai and the other supporting cast as the inmates. The music is in sync with the movie and the screenplay and cinematography has been done in an excellent way.

I feel Jail could have done better business instead of bombing at the box office if it only didn't release aside the comic raper Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani.

Jail has Neils best performance so far, a nice story and great content! Go for it!