Directed by : Gowtam Tinnanuri

Noor na rukhtey, saah vi na mukkdey.. ke agg bann gaya hai lahu mera.

Shahid Kapoor, Mrunal Thakur, Ronit Kamra, Pankaj Kapur in 'Jersey'

Spoilers ahead... 


The story is same as that of original version of Jersey (starring Nani). The only major difference here is that Arjun Talwar (Shahid Kapoor) lives in Chandigarh and plays for Punjab team. Also, Arjun's son Karan 'Kittu' Talwar is played by Ronit Kamra who was also in same role in the original.

I had seen Mili without watching the original and it worked really well for me, and that begs a question that if I saw this version of Jersey first would I have enjoyed it lot more? Or maybe it's just a case of original being too good that the remake feels less engaging. 

Remakes are already something I enjoy very rarely and when its 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 atleast work up on the weak links of original movie. 

As much as I want to say Shahid Kapoor tries his best, two factors spoils his act, one is ofcourse it was tough to match Nani's original performance and other is the shades of Kabir Singh you felt in the looks and also the nature at various places. The swag was missing specially in the 1986 sequences, I did enjoy him in the father role lot better. Also, the punjabi dialogues coming out from him didn't feel natural at all. 

Mrunal Thakur (Vidya Talwar), playing wife of Arjun is pretty good in supporting role. 

Coming to the best parts of movie, I loved Ronit Kamra, he is again excellent as son of Arjun, the innocence, that proud smile when a friend tells him about his dad's photo in newspaper, the guilt he feels for the on-going 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 its a real father-son duo of Pankaj-Shahid giving lot more chemistry to the narrative, specially 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? 

Lastly, the music is really good. My personal favourite is 'Mehram' which I would say is nicely used but could had been lot better. Also, I loved 'Jind Meriye', another great emotional track about unfulfilled dreams. 

Overall, Jersey wasn't a match to the original for me as I just couldn't feel the same emotions I felt in the Nani version.. still a decent watch and most likely will work lot better if you haven't seen the original. 

My Rating : 5.5/ 10