Movie: Bobby Jasoos
Director: Samar Shaikh
Cast: Vidya Balan, Ali Fazal, Vinay Varma, Supriya Pathak, Tanvi Azmi, Zarina Wahab, Rajendra Gupta
Rating: ***
Bobby Jasoos is a very native film. A detective tale at heart, it’s a work that peeps enough into the place, taking a third person’s perspective about mindsets, necessarily capturing the chauvinistic facets of a society. The film has its single-minded focus on a female character and is careful not to take the luxury of slipping into a gender-empowering initiative on the same front.
Bobby is given an immensely normal introduction for a film named after her. This is only for a start. It’s also the director’s trick in not losing out on the next-door relatable charm she innately has. She’s uneducated and unmarried at 30, looking desperately for a break in a detective agency. She grows bigger with each of her unofficial assignments, surprising herself from the rather disapproving beginnings at her first office, a small cabin in an Internet parlour. Being the butt of ridicule at her house for her choice of profession,she tries hard to feel normal. A while later,the satisfaction on her face when she gets her first salary is something to die for.
Through Bobby’s multifarious avatars, you explore the place as much as her.Just like a Habib Faisal for Delhi,the writer misses nothing of Hyderabad, be it in words, attitudes or the Charminar with the visuals. A lodge is called a kamre wali hotel and the characters occasionally come up with their Telugu roots. The crispness in Bobby Jasoos on the same front is consistent but the suspense is never targeted at being even barely mind-boggling. It’s more of the smaller wily games that are not exactly practicable and cinematic in treatment.
Her on-screen partner is more subtle of the two. If she’s the aggressor, he’s the moderator. They are an unconventional couple. There are hardly any sparks or thunderbolts when they meet. The strange equation involves more of the male counterpart respecting her more when the tide’s against her. They get an imaginary duet amidst all the tension but the romance is strictly basic. An elaborate sketch is the last thing you would expect out of a film titled Bobby Jasoos. However, the best of their track is packaged in a scene where Ali Fazal fumbles in convincing his father of his unwillingness to marry.
The performances are generally dependable as the film moves on. The possibly unintentional similarities to Kahaani surface when the director is adamant in making the city explorations seem another layer embedded into the story. The emotion being dominant, the climax isn’t as welcoming as the journey of Bobby. It’s tough to remember of another actress on the lines of Vidya Balan in the recent times who can scale above the story to give it a touch of believability. Bobby Jasoos’s intricacies are warming. Does translate into a rewarding experience ? You nod your head but not wholeheartedly.
