Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Drama
Year: 2022
Running time: 2 hours 6 minutes
Director: Suresh Triveni
Cast: Vidya Balan, Shefali Chaya, Rohini Hattangadi, Manav Kaul, Surya Kasibhatla
Kid rating: PG
Vidya Balan is Maya Menon, an outspoken journalist and TV anchor. She is also a single mother, and lives with her son Ayush and mother (Rohini Hattangadi). Rukhsana Mohammad (Shah) is her loyal maid, who helps look after Ayush who has cerebral palsy. When, one night, driving home from work, Maya is involved in an accident, she panics and leaves a girl bleeding on the road. Shaken, she returns home, doesn’t tell anyone and attempts to get rid of/clean up the evidence linking her to the accident. The next day she realizes that the nameless, faceless, young girl she left bleeding on the road is her maid Rukhsana’s daughter, the very same Ruksana who looks after Ayush so lovingly.
Jalsa is about a moral quandary. Maya, the outspoken upholder of truth finds herself in a situation she’d rather keep mum about. Ruksana is the distraught mother who is grateful to her employer for her help with her daughter not knowing that Maya herself is responsible. The film takes an incident and presents points of view from all around it. Nothing is black and white; each person involved has his/her own problems and pressures.
Director Suresh Triveni makes a fine film, etching out his characters realistically and presenting them to us, the viewers, as real people with moral and personal conundrums. Both Shah and Balan are marvelous. Rohini Hattangadi has a small role as Maya’s mother but she is superb in it. Surya Kasibhatla as Ayush and Shafeen Patel as Ruksana’s young son Imad are very good too.
Jalsa (celebration) is a slow-moving thriller and emotional drama. The first half deals with the accident, Maya’s mental perturbation, and her fear of being found out. The latter part of the film delves deep into issues of the class divide, morality, right and wrong.
Kidwise: Rather weighty for the younger ones. A few adult situations, although nothing explicit is shown.
