Rating : ⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Drama
Year: 2022
Running time: 2 hours 50 minutes
Director: Gowtam Tinnanuri
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Mrunal Thakur, Pankaj Kapoor, Ronit Kamra
Kid rating: PG
I think time might be going backwards. Because what else would explain dumb stories like this one actually making it to the silver screen? Now, now, I’m not saying I hated it but hear me out.
First things first: The film is about Arjun (Shahid) a 36 year old ex-cricketer, who wasn’t good enough for the Indian cricket team. For Arjun professional cricket is 10 years in the past. He’s also been let go from his job because of alleged corruption charges, and so he sits at home, unwilling to move on, while his wife runs the household.
One fine day, his little son Kittu (Ronit Kamra) asks him for a cricket jersey costing Rs 500. Arjun doesn’t have that kind of money, and frustration at being unable to even buy a gift for his son propels him to train for professional cricket again. The goal is to remain a “hero” in his son’s eyes.
Jersey then is Arjun’s story of redemption, given his son’s adoration and egged on by his former coach’s enthusiastic support. His wife Vidya isn’t very gung-ho about the whole trying-on-cricket-again thing but Arjun goes about achieving his goal.
As you probably know, this is a copy of the Telugu original helmed by the very same director. It’s also an underdog story, with lot’s of cricket, family-drama, and emotional pathos thrown in. And yes, it works. Because even as I’m shaking my head at the asinine lead character, I’m also engaged by the on-screen theatrics and the father-son bonding.
On the negative side, this is an old-school (gave me an 80s feel) film with a macho character given to violent outbursts (angry young man) and a hankering for “principles”. The female lead, despite being the breadwinner and the one holding together the family, is merely a supportive extra in Arjun’s glorious comeback story.
Director Tinnanuri doesn’t cut corners when it comes to giving his hero his all. There are no nuances to Arjun’s struggle – despite being out of practice and out of shape for the 10 years of non-cricket, Arjun comes out batting hard, hitting the ball for sixers like there’s no tomorrow. There’s also Arjun’s former coach, Baali (Pankaj Kapoor), who despite all Arjun’s missteps remains Arjun’s most stanch supporter.
Arjun’s character checks all the boxes required of a Bollywood hero. He eats, breathes, drives around on a motorbike and gets into skirmishes when someone makes remarks about his lady-love. In Arjun I saw flashes of Kabir Singh – the anger and the goal of maintaining the “hero’s bravado” to the exclusion of all else.
There is much pathos here and much of what I call “false” pathos. True, Arjun is in a bad situation, but what propels him to finally take action is not shame at a wasted life, but how he appears to his young son – never mind the wife who’s selflessly slaving away trying to sustain her family. Bollywood affords heroes a laxity never extended to heroines. While Vidya’s character stretches from amorous lady-love making out with Arjun at his cricketing sessions, to dignified, sari-clad wife and mother making ends meet sans any help from her partner, Arjun merely has to think of himself and his cricket. And get lauded for it.
The troubling thing about films like Jersey is that they portray everyday misogyny (without even knowing that they do?). It was easier to spot in Kabir Singh or The Great Indian Kitchen, but it is in this film too, nonetheless. Arjun loves his wife, and does not abuse her, but her support is taken for granted. Because of course, while he whiles away his life, moaning about lack of money, while not taking good jobs that are offered to him, the selfless woman in his life must slave at her job and her home! While he makes this all about his goals, no one is actually giving a whit about the toll it takes on her.
Jersey, while predictable and too long (3 hours!!!), is watchable. It falls very short of full-throated approval because of it’s dumb hero and his hard-to-root-for actions.
Kidwise: Some kissing, but otherwise clean.
