Jalsa Movie Review: Vidya Balan & Shefali Shah's Impressive Acts Work As Saving Grace In This Long-Cut Thriller

Forgiveness! A simple word with a simple meaning, but it takes a lot of effort and guts. That's what Aamir Khan Productions' documentary Rubaru Roshni (2019), inspired by true events, tried to tell us. For fictional features, we had the Malayalam flick Kaanekkaane last year, which again told the same thing with more emotions and more drama. At the end of it, you understand the meaning and importance of forgiveness, despite the fact that you just can't forgive a murderer or someone who has hurt you or your loved ones. It's very difficult, but not impossible, if one has decided from the heart. Amazon Prime Video's latest original film, Jalsa, is nothing but the same story told again, but in a different way. Jalsa is a story about a hard-core journalist, Maya (Vidya Balan), and her cook, Rukhsana (Shefali Shah). Call it a funny incident, but two OTT releases on the same Friday (Bloody Brothers on ZEE5), i.e. March 18th, have the same scene in the beginning – the car accident. Jalsa is a serious film, by the way. Maya's happy mood causes an accident that makes Rukhsana sad and then begins a mentally tough game between hiding the truth and finding the truth. Maya's attempts to cover up the accident collide with Rukhsana's efforts to uncover the truth, and what happens at the end is all that you get to see in Jalsa.Jalsa is heavily dependent on the performances of two powerhouses, Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah. Vidya has got many scenes where she goes all out, free and bonkers with her acting skills. Every single scene where the pressure is built on her character gives testament to her acting finesse. Shefali Shah puts all her experience to match the opponent, and she just doesn't match it, but she overtakes others in some scenes. Rohini Hattangadi's support is noticeable, and the rest of the supporting actors, such as Iqbal Khan, Vidhatri Bandi, Shrikant Mohan Yadav and new faces Surya Kasibhatla and Shafeen Patel are good too.The film is about two hours long, which is not a long run time at all, but still feels like a stretched film because the events haven't got any thrill. You can predict the scenes as easily as you predict the outcome of a daily soap. However, the editing makes it impressive. There are some scenes in the film when you jump out of your seats and feel shattered for a moment. The background is responsible for that, along with the cinematography and tight editing.Jalsa could have had a better screenplay with more conflicts and twists around the incident, but unfortunately it sticks to one point and circulates the entire narrative round and round for something which isn't chilling. The conclusion is all you waited for, and then you realise that it's something you didn't really ask for.The atmospheric brilliance is captured very smartly by the director. Suresh Triveni's last outing with Vidya, Tumhari Sulu had the same issue, as both the films start off on a slow note and try to be steady throughout the narrative. With family drama, it was okay, but for a thriller, it's hurting. That's what hurts Jalsa the most. Triveni relies more on his actors than on his own storytelling, and that's why Jalsa looks scattered. You have those fast-cuts and suddenly it loses the pace with those long-cuts. You can also blame mediocre writing for that. I am not saying this for the first-timers because maybe they will connect to the story if they haven't seen it before. As a whole, Jalsa makes an average thriller that can be watched only for the impressive performances of Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah and atmospheric tension.