Jia Aur Jia Movie Review: A Wasted Trip

Mostly, when it comes to road trip movies, filmmakers have weaved stories around male protagonists and so, when the trailer of Jia Aur Jia starring Richa Chadda and Kalki Koechlin was released, I was mildly intrigued, to say the least.

But does Jia Aur Jia prove to be another Dil Chahta Hai or Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara? Read on to find out…

Set in Mumbai and Sweden, the film revolves around Jia Venkatraman (Richa Chadha), a sober and dour banker and the bohemian Jia (Kalki), who meet on a shared trip to Sweden and how the trip changes their lives, especially when they meet alcoholic sculptor Vasu (Arslan Goni).

Richa, who has given powerful performances in films such as Ram Leela and Masaan, lets us down with her hamming this time around. On the other hand, Kalki as the cheery Jia is like a breath of fresh air and has a childlike cuteness about her, which is quite adorable. On his part, Arslan comes across as a poor man’s Zayed Khan and is absolutely unimpressive.

As for the story itself, what starts off as a potentially fun trip movie veers off track and turns into a yuppie version of Anand starring Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan. Sorry for the spoiler, but there was no other way to describe the plot, which was as haywire and predictable as could be.

If the weak screenplay and bad performances were not enough, even the technical aspect of the film is quite below average and the camera work and the colour correction makes it look like a B-grade fare.

The climax is predictable and clichéd enough to make you cringe and we seriously wish director Howard Rosemeyer would have stuck to making a fun film instead of attempting to tug at the heart-strings of viewers by introducing the whole ‘terminal illness’ angle, which doesn’t work at all.

All in all, Jia Aur Jia is not really worth your time…