Firstly, I acknowledge that film is not journalism, it carries no burden to show the right prevail or the evil, neither is it under any moral obligation to take sides and show one as wrong.Despite all that however, the ending of the film removes the veil from the hidden motives behind it and settled a lot of my confusions that went through my head throughout the film. The ending revealed which way it was aimed to head towards. Coming to the point, I sensed the agenda being forwarded, in a subtle way of course, of promoting (1) mob justice, (2) and a some sort of extra-judicial, brutal punishment for rapists.A film, or literary support for such a idea is the last thing that a country like India needs to combat these issues. I fully understand that rape, sexual assaults and harassment are amongst the major issues facing India, but eradicating any does not require for the society itself to resort to savagery. This is not how the Western societies of our age have progressed and developed.A step like this would only make room for people to settle personal scores and hinder a proper process being carried to ensure fitting punishments are meted out to respective crimes (although, I agree that the the judicial systems of many countries need to improve in order to ensure swift justice). A clear example that I come to remember right now is of a man whose penis was cut of by an angry mob after he was accused of attempting to rape a girl. There are so many questions for a case like this. Certainly, it is dangerous, carries the risk of an innocent being punished by an enraged crowd and would hinder the progress of your society through the common man.Now coming to the film itself, it is good and engaging in parts but at the same time the film is very confusing in parts and the purpose behind it all done by Shabana Azmi is very illogical. The whole case and the courtroom drama is childish to say the least.

Aishwarya Rai's comeback movie, featuring Irrfan and Shabana Aazmi, and directed by Sanjay Gupta. Not a great movie, but, I can't say about minus points. The length of the movie is perfect. The pace is good. Every second of the movie is engaging. Story is not new, but, then also it's enjoyable. Aishwarya gives as per her role. As she has given the performance which was acceptable in those days, but now a days it looks like overacting somehow. Though she looks good. Shabana and Atul Kulkarni are perfectly suitable for the role. Jackie Shroff and Sidhhant Kapoor play cameo roles. One of the biggest plus point is dialogues. And especially those, which were delivered by Irrfan. No doubt, he is tremendous. He is funny too in some of the scenes. His eyes are mesmerizing. He is one of the best actors of the decade. Direction is good. Film looks like a greenish or yellowish painting. Cinematography is good, but, in some parts, it is little bit of shaky. On the whole, definitely a one time watch movie, for Irrfan and one liners. Though, Aishwarya's fans can go too. "Mohabbat hai isiliye jaane diya, zid hoti, to baahon me hoti!"

We were excited to go see Irfan Khan but sadly came home very disappointed. I am rating this film as one-star just because of Irfan Khan being in the movie. The screenplay, dialogues, direction, photography, editing, and music are just substantially substandard. The overall impression one carries after having seen this movie is like being tortured by a hyper-chromic and very loud and very crude juvenile attempt of movie making. The Irfan Khan character could have been much better than being downright mediocre. Aishwarya should go back and attend the beginner's classes on acting. Shabana is just too synthetic and aloof. There are too many technical errors, especially during the court scenes. The lack of continuity is also a major drawback. The viewers are at loss when they fail to comprehend the incoherent sequences unfolding on the screen.

Take a city, add bombastic dialogs, add lots of green, and you get a Sanjay Gupta Film. Take the recipe, add an actress who had a hiatus of at least 5 years, and you get Jazbaa. Had it been 7 years, you would have got Jazbaaa, 8 then Jazzbaaa, 9 then Jjazzbaaa, and so on, but that's not the issue here.After showing the audience that she is fit and fine to come back to the screen by running through Marine Drive, Bachchan starts portraying the roles of a criminal lawyer, a marathon sprinter, a helicopter mom, and a Gold medalist screamer. Boy, she can scream anywhere, anytime, and at anybody. Suddenly, her school-going daughter is kidnapped by a tech-savvy abductor-cum-hacker-cum-righteous mamzer who demands that she fight the case of a convicted drug dealer and let him walk free.To our surprise, she agrees to pay the unique ransom, and helping her in her child-saving mission is her childhood friend (really?), rustily played by Khan who is himself fighting an alleged graft case for heck's sake. What follows is neither new to our thriller senses nor is novel by any of its look-good approaches.Throwing green and more green at you just because it's your signature style does not work anymore. We have reached Mars, for god's sakes. Apart from those delivered by Khan, all the dialogs are preposterous. Do you think you would scream "Where are you?" to a kidnapper who has just abducted your baby? Mr. Gupta does.Mrs. Bachchan's performance is particularly cringe-worthy as she moves here and there with a dead stare in her eyes and a lion's roar for a throat. Reacting throughout the film like you hate everybody is not the appropriate type of characterization that one adds into a story whose climax is more apparent than the actors' ages. The protagonist plays a lawyer who only defends known, guilty offenders because, she claims, "those who are not guilty cannot afford her." With this attitude, I had Arybhatta's greatest invention of cares to give.The screenplay is a hot mess. Trying to slip in few songs between a thriller film is the lowest thing Gupta has done for Jazbaa. There's even a hip hop song by Badshah somewhere which had great similarities with his number in Khoobsurat. It reminded me of its actress and I was done for the day.Courtroom sequences are nicely carved jokes here, where the judge is sleeping and the advocates themselves reaching a verdict, even making few educated guesses in front of him; it was unintentional humor. They are so bad that just these sequences can be tried in a real court for perjury. There's also a touch of activism, for cryin' out loud. I am all for woman-centric films, but churning out rubbish in the name of thrills and hiring an actress with a huge fandom and telling an ordinary story will be received the same way how other recent films are received in Bollywood, irrespective of the genre. Shroff and Azmi did a good job.BOTTOM LINE: Sanjay Gupta's Jazbaa is maybe made for the modern world where every other person is a thug, but after analysis, it just looks like green beef.GRADE: D-Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES