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Jimmy | | Director
Raj N Sippy | | Cast
Mimoh Chakraborty, Vivana, Zulfi Syed, Shakti Kapoor | | |
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Sonia Chopra
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| There are words you've heard consistently in films of the '70s and '80s – karz, brain tumour, bete ka farz and the widowed mother squealing 'beta nashta to karte ja'. If you feel you’re trapped in a mish-mash of several formulaic, unimaginative films of that era, you truly can’t be held at fault. Mithum Chakraborty's son Mimoh's debut Jimmy wouldn’t be fair on any newcomer and one wonders what made them zero in on this one. The story gets into the grim of things quickly: the phone rings for ACP Rajeshwar Vyas (Rahul Dev, grimacing and scowling, and never in uniform) and he receives information about a dead body. We see the body of Ritu Bhatnagar, a lady with plumped-up lips and big, non-blinking eyes. The next cut takes us to Jimmy (Mimoh) who’s dancing away furiously in a nightclub where he works as the DJ. As your eyes curiously scan the newcomer, you realise a few things – he’s a great dancer, an absolute natural; his dancing, unfortunately, does not make up for his lack of leading man looks and presence; his hair needs some immediate TLC (tender loving care). The song playing in the background has lyrics like `why not Jimyyyyyy’. Jimmy is DJ at night and mechanic at day; he’s working this hard to repay his deceased father’s karz and give his aatma shanti. His mother is the archetypal filmi ma, only tad more glam. She keeps spouting dialogues like`ye ladka bhi na’, when not scolding him like he’s a five-year-old. Love interest arrives in the form of a girl Megha who keeps crashing into his car and the cop they go to, alas, turns out to be Shakti Kapoor in his most suggestive and objectionable avatar. They christen her Miss Breaking News and turns out she is the daughter of a man who calls himself an Arabpati. Arabpati is friends and partner with a slimy man and his slimier son (Vikas Kalantri, help); again these characters are straight out of the villains in the '70s who always came in beta-baap jodis, with the latter being the more calm and cunning one. Arabpati suggests that Megha marry his partner’s son, but she’s fallen for Jimmy. Meanwhile, Jimmy faints twice and is diagnosed as having brain tumour. He is approached by a man who claims to have killed Ritu. He wants Jimmy to take the blame upon him, and in return, is willing to finish off his existing loan. What happens next? Courtroom drama that make you giggle, emotional rona dhona that gets on your nerves, the ACP who is omnipresent and manages to eavesdrop on everyone’s conversations, the story told all over again through a flashback scene, and a twist that has you all twisted in the head. Mimoh is a superb dancer, but he's not proven himself to be hero material whether in terms of talent, presence or even outward styling. Vivana is pretty in a Sonali Bendre kind of way and has a commanding screen presence as well. Zulfi Syed, who plays Jimmy’s bhai-jaisa-dost, gives dialogue delivery so bad, it’s perplexing. The technical aspect of the film is archaic. Cinematography tries hard to be contemporary and cool, but ain’t; editing needed to trim the film further, was the flashback really required; the storytelling technique is old as the hills, and the dialogue is unoriginal and uninspired. Songs like Marhabba are quite listen-worthy. The film, overall, gives a very outdated feel and its lack of originality makes for a rather dull debut vehicle. |
