Jhund Movie Review: Amitabh Bachchan, Nagraj Manjule And Team 'Jhund' Score Big Social Goals

Football is the most celebrated sport in foreign countries, but not in India. Of course, we have some crazy fans of this sport, but it's not like cricket. I mean, the religion kind of thing. Maybe that's why Bollywood hasn't made many memorable films about football. The last big one I remember was Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal (2007), which was hardly an average film. The most memorable thing happened in 1984 when Prakash Jha made his debut with Hip Hip Hurray, which was written by Gulzar. For cricket, we have Aamir Khan's classic Lagaan (2001) and for wrestling, he gave us another classic, Dangal, (2016), whereas hockey is known for SRK's Chak De India (2007). All these films have something dramatic that also appeals to the mainstream Hindi audience. In other words, we call it a commercial cinema. So let's make it clear here and now that Nagraj Manjule's Jhund is far away from that.If you remember Manjule's previous two feature films, - Fandry (2014) and Sairat (2016), then you know what kind of cinema he makes. Fandry was too realistic and hard-hitting for the regular audience to understand, while Sairat gave a lot to enjoy in the first half. In the second half of Sairat, he returned to his kind of cinema but still managed to pull off a stunning social drama. With Jhund, he does the same thing again. In the first half of Jhund, he provides you with those enjoyable sports drama sequences and then takes a complete U-turn towards his artistic cinema.Inspired by the true story, Jhund is about a football coach, Vijay Barse (Amitabh Bachchan), who sees talent in slumdog boys. The boys, who have every single bad addiction such as robbery, chain snatching, alcoholism, and even taking drugs, start getting a new addiction to playing football, and thus begins the journey of Vijay's team, aka Jhund. He motivates those boys and then goes on to search for similar hidden talents all over the nation. What kind of situations he has to face and how those boys and girls learn to tackle them is all you get to see in the film.The film has a big cast, and it's difficult to name the entire team, so let's pick a few. Firstly, Amitabh Bachchan. Jhund is his film, after all, and his experience is more than enough to carry the entire film on his shoulders. At this age, he delivers monologues. Isn't that too much, even for a legend? He doesn't have as many monologues and speeches as he did in Pink, and he only has one monologue (the courtroom scene), but what a remarkable act he performs. The rest are a slew of slum kids, which also includes some small supporting roles of Sairat-fame Akash Thosar and Rinku Rajguru, and they all don't act, they don't give you the performances you want to see in the cinema, but they just show you their natural behaviour. Not a single boy or girl tries to act in front of the camera; they just deliver dialogues like any slumdog would do in real life. Ankush Gedam, Babu Ksahtriya, Jerico Robert, Raziya Kazi, Kartik Uikey, Sayli Patil, Allen Patrick, Surabh Abhyankar, Angel Anthony, Vishaka Uikey and others are as natural as they could get. Well that's again Manjule's trademark. You must know that he didn't use any experienced actors in Fandry or Sairat either.Jhund has got fantastic situational music. It isn't a typical Bollywood album, but I don't know why it tries to be one with a couple of songs. Lafda Zala is a wild party number for lower and middle-class youths, while Jhund Title Song is for all ages. It's a perfect theme song that suits every occasion whenever it plays, be it slow motion walks or periodic pauses. The screenplay is very engaging in the first half and very slow in the second half. It doesn't look like a Manjule film in the first half because he doesn't try to force his intellectual thoughts right from the start. For a while, he keeps you entertained with funny punchlines, local humor, and the usual spine-chilling sports action. But be prepared for the amazing cinematography of the talented Sudhakar Reddy. Then, the second half is all about hard-hitting social issues.Jhund may have the regular predictable segments about socialism, and while it also makes itself a questionnaire for some time, it is more about educating yourself. That airport scene in the climax tells you that. Every Tapori gully boy thinks he's the king/don in his area, but when he comes outside the slums, when he tries to immerse himself in a sophisticated world, he realises that he is just nobody. That scene hits you so hard, but you have to understand the hidden meaning behind it.Nagraj Manjule knows his craft, and he also knows how to present it. There is no denying that his films aren't made for the masses (except Sairat, and that too because of the first half), but he has his class to take care of. With Jhund, he attempts that social awakening not only for the high-class people in society, but for those uneducated slum people too. Jhund is that socially alarming film we have all been missing in the sports drama genre, but it's not for the mainstream audience. It's Manjule's subtle and artistic vision that takes it far away from mainstream commercial sports films. Overall, Nagraj Manjule, Amitabh Bachchan and team Jhund score enough social goals in this brave attempt, and it deserves to be watched for that praiseworthy attempt.