'Jugjugg Jeeyo' Review: A Flawed Film Held Together by Brilliant Performances

Jugjugg Jeeyo stars Varun Dhawan, Anil Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor & Kiara Advani in key roles.

A still from Jugjugg Jeeyo.

(Photo Courtesy: Pinterest)

All’s well that ends well in a Dharma film. Jugjugg Jeeyo is no different . It’s the kind of glitter and shimmer one has come to expect, where chaos is played up for laughs and cantankerous fights are taken to a shrill high only to inevitably get drowned by dhol beats, naach gaana and Patiala pegs. A happy song plays with the end credits and we get two hours watching well-dressed, beautiful people in their big houses and luxe interiors. Ultimately, we walk out smiling.

Varun Dhawan & Kiara Advani in a still from Jugjugg Jeeyo.

Jugjugg Jeeyo is precisely that kind of film. Decidedly unambitious, it sticks to its brief. We are mostly entertained, mildly amused and a bit restless in the bits where the pacing falters. A very Dharma-esq retelling of Marriage Story, if you may say. Kukoo (Varun Dhawan) and Naina (Kiara Advani), childhood sweethearts who eventually get their appropriately lavish happily ever after, find out after five years of marriage that relationships can be prickly. The cracks are visible, and the grey and black palette used to showcase their dull everyday routine in Canada mirrors their mood.

Naina’s career has taken off and while she is thriving professionally, their own marriage is in doldrums. Kukoo works in a local pub as a bouncer, Naina has just been offered a plum posting in New York, but both must first keep up the act of being a happy couple because families back home need time to absorb the shock. So, they mutually decide that till Ginny (Prajakta Koli), Kukoo’s sister, gets married they would keep their fights private.

Anil Kapoor in a still from Jugjugg Jeeyo.

As the story shifts to Patiala , the canvas becomes bigger and brighter and one expects nothing less. Director Raj Mehta and screenplay writers Anurag Singh, Rishhabh Sharma, Sumit Batheja and Neeraj Udhawani add all the usual elements into this masala entertainer that encourages us to surrender unquestioningly. The bhangra music underlines the frolic, big jhappis are given and loud laughs are let out. Anil Kapoor, the papaji, and Neetu Singh, the mummy ji, make things more visually appealing. Maniesh Paul as Gurpreet plays the well-meaning , funny hero ka dost (who in this case is also heroine ka bhai) quite effortlessly.

As the trailer has already informed us, this film is as much about weddings as it is about drifting apart.

It's about rifts and reconciliations, the dreaded D word being bandied around by both father and son. While Kukoo is looking for an opportune time to break the news to his father, daddy Bheem reveals his own intentions of getting a divorce. What follows is dealt with equal doses of levity and love, sometimes an honest look at the wear and tear that relationships inevitably go through and then the formulaic exaggeration and throbs of melodrama .

Everything Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani do has an underrated sweetness to it. The easy charm and natural chemistry they share make it easy for us to root for them and look at their situation with sympathy .

Where the story falters is in showing us the delicately held-together marriage of the older couple.

From initially treating the conflict for laughs to establishing how it’s not lust but love that Bheem feels for Meera (Tisca Chopra), it feels like this could finally be a mature exploration of how two people can drift apart in a marriage without anyone being branded a villain. That a marriage can be a compromise, two people can be cordial to each other but love and a meeting of minds may still be a distant dream. But as we find out this hope is soon thwarted as more music and melodrama come our way .

Complexities and nuances are summarily dismissed as it all boils down to “garmagaram rotis”. Turns out this is the only thing that the trailer doesn’t speak about and so for the sake of not giving out spoilers yours truly will not elaborate any further. Jugjugg Jeeyo. It’s adorned with all good stuff that will put you in a forgiving mood. Music, visual pleasure and a brilliant act by Anil Kapoor.

Our rating: 3 Quints out of 5