Jai Gangajal moves on the same story line as the prequel Gangajal.
Here too the story is set in the interior hinterlands of India in a place called Bankipur. The district is ruled by the local politicians hand in glove with the Mafia or is it the other way or aren’t they the same or whatever, but you do get the point, right? The local police are completely sold out to the politicians and the politicians use the police as their own local henchmen.
One such corrupt inspector is BN Singh (Prakash Jha) and when his actions are about to be foiled and he transferred the SP gets transferred and in comes the new SP, Abhaa Mathur (Priyanaka Chopra).
The district is fret with goons of the MLA Babloo Singh and his younger brother Dabloo Singh. Looting, arson, kidnap, rape and murder mean nothing to them as they have BN Singh to cover their backs.
One of the dream projects of the brothers is to get a Samantha Power Project in their district and are ready to give the land of the farmers for the project, through coaxing, cajoling, threatening and anything to get the farmer’s lands including inducing suicide.
Abhaa tries her best to rein in her team and slowly and steadily the cops start to see the value of the uniform and are ready to stand up against Babloo and Dabloo Singh.
Even BN Singh through a series of events has a change of heart and goes after the rouge brothers
The local residents on seeing the police stand up, take the law into their own hands and start doling out justice to the goons in public through lynching and hanging and labelling it as a case of suicide.
Abhaa has dual trouble – facing the red tape and accept the inability of her seniors to go against the political bigwigs and to control the public lynching and hanging of the goons.
The story is predictable. The initial part of the movie is a little drag, where it tries to establish the goonda-raj of the rogue brothers, and gets way better once Priyanka comes in. The second half seems a little muddled the story is going hay wire and sloppy writing.
And then there is this social worker, IIT Topper, MBA, kicked his million dollar earning job in the USA to fight for farmer’s rights, who is randomly present, says a few lines disappears and then again comes out from nowhere, the guy looks completely lost, and so are the writers.
The cinematography and the direction is very ok. Nothing great. Somehow does not give the rustic look of watching an Omkara or even Gangajal.
Priyanka looks marvelous. She has done a great job, actually somehow it looks like a cake walk for her, absolutely effortless. Even the action scenes are done very well by her. A great follow up to her role in Bajirao Mastani. The Hollywood stint seems to be doing wonders.
Prakash Jha has a lot of screen time, may be as much or more than Priyanka. In the first half he looks and acts like a sutradhaar been there done that kind of an attitude, does ok. Later in the movie he does better depicting his fight within and the cleansing.
Others, nothing much too say. Yes Ninad Kamat has done well. Very despicable as Dabloo Singh.
The movie had potential, a little patience, some more thought and some editing could have made it better.
Watch it for Priyanaka, you will yearn to see her on screen. One time watch not much to regret if you miss it. Not as good as Gangajal.