"Noor na
rukhtey, saah vi na mukkdey.. ke agg bann gaya hai lahu mera.”
Spoilers ahead...
Plot Completely Resembles Original Jersey Version
The story
is the same as the original version of Jersey (starring Nani). The only major
difference here is that Arjun Talwar (Shahid Kapoor) lives in Chandigarh and
plays for the Punjab team. Also, Arjun's son Karan 'Kittu' Talwar is played by
Ronit Kamra, who was also in the same role in the original.
Another South Remake that fails to live up to the expectations
I had
seen Mili without watching the original, and it worked really well for me. This
begs the question: if I saw this version of Jersey first, would I have enjoyed
it a lot more? Or maybe it's just a case of the original being too good that
the remake feels less engaging. Remakes are something I enjoy very rarely, and
when it’s a scene-to-scene, situation-to-situation, and at many places even
dialogue-to-dialogue copy, you gotta ask, 'What's the point of such a movie?'
What's even more frustrating is that the director didn’t care to at least work
on the weak links of the original movie.
Shahid Kapoor couldn’t match Nani’s original performance
As much
as I want to say Shahid Kapoor tries his best, two factors spoil his act. One
is, of course, it was tough to match Nani's original performance, and the other
is the shades of Kabir Singh you felt in his looks and nature at various
places. The swag was missing, especially in the 1986 sequences. I did enjoy him
in the father role a lot better. Also, the Punjabi dialogues coming from him
didn’t feel natural at all.
Mrunal
Thakur (Vidya Talwar), playing the wife of Arjun, is pretty good in a
supporting role.
Enjoyable Performances by Ronit Kamra and Pankaj Kapur
Coming to
the best parts of the movie, I loved Ronit Kamra. He is again excellent as
Arjun’s son. The innocence, the proud smile when a friend tells him about his
dad’s photo in the newspaper, the guilt he feels for the ongoing fight between
his parents, or how without any thought he says he feels his dad looks like a
hero when he bats.
Then,
there's coach Baali Sir (Pankaj Kapur). This track works firstly because of how
good Pankaj Kapur is and the fact that it's a real father-son duo of
Pankaj-Shahid, giving a lot more chemistry to the narrative, especially that
hug scene when Baali Sir says not to get hopes too high of getting selected.
Why did they cut the scene where Arjun goes to Baali Sir's home to give the
happy news of being selected?
Jersey's Music: Mehram and Jind Meriye standout tracks
Lastly,
the music is really good. My personal favourite is 'Mehram,' which I would say
is nicely used but could have been a lot better. I also loved 'Jind Meriye,'
another great emotional track about unfulfilled dreams.
Final Verdict on Jersey
Overall, The
Hindi remake
of Jersey struggles to capture the emotional depth of the original. Still, it’s
a decent watch and will most likely work a lot better if you haven’t seen the
original.
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