Jersey Movie Review : Jersey Is An Emotion and Shahid Kapoor Plays The Masterstroke!

Genre : Sports Drama

Duration :  170 minutes

Plot : An unemployed father promises his son a Jersey for his birthday. His wife who is struggling to make ends meet refuses to pay him. What unfolds next is a story of unfulfilled dreams and the burden of chasing those dreams in the second innings.

What works for the film?

Jersey's technical prowess is spectacular. Gowtam Tinnanuri has managed to blend cinematography, music, plot setting and character design into a fine rhythm. His visualization makes the world of Arjun Talwar grounded yet heroic. He makes you root for every character and skips the usual narrative of hero vs villain. Tinnanuri is thoughtful while lending a voice to his main character, Arjun Talwar. Through Arjun Talwar we are introduced to a world of unfulfilled dreams, we laugh when he laughs, and our eyes well up if things aren't looking up for him. 

Shahid Kapoor as Arjun Talwar is marching to his own drum, and we are dancing to his rhythm. He is immersed in his character, he is emotive and entertaining. He scores the winning runs for Jersey.

Pankaj Kapur has a natural charm. He is effortless in portraying the same character in three different time junctures. A simple character who steals frames not by long monologues or grand gestures, only by his presence.

Mrunal Thakur is a capable performer, time and again she has proved her ability. There is ingenuity in which Vidya is portrayed by her. Certainly, her character does face the usual trope of a love interest sooner or later asking the main character to make a choice. But because the writing is top-notch and her performance is sincere we get past it.

Ronit Kamra as Arjun Talwar's son is a wise head on a young shoulder. He is in sync with the director's vision and does exactly what is expected of him. He has a promising future.

 

Finally the music of Jersey pulls your heartstring, there is a sense of relief when tuneful music cues a character's emotions. The music of this film is wielded for having an insight into character dynamics and controlling their arcs.

What doesn't work for film?

A shot for every time Vidya calls Arjun 'Babu' and you will have a fun drinking game. A bit of repetitive writing drags the story from the otherwise great script.

The second half appears to change its pace in a non-uniform way making the narrative a bit predictable.

Final thoughts?

Even though Jersey's second innings was a bit slow, Jersey still won the match by a huge margin. Shahid Kapoor is the man of the match, and others are super strikers and power players! A must watch movie.