Jailer movie review - more a parole than a release

I watched Jailer this morning and this is my first visit to a movie theater after many years. And it is quite possible that that last movie I saw in a theater was Durbar. 

This is the 3rd day since the movie was released, and I caught a 9 AM show at PVR Cinemas in Express Avenue Mall – again my first visit to any mall in many years! For someone who was visiting every mall in the city every weekend (sometimes many in a single evening https://jawaman.blogspot.com/2006/10/mall-hopping_115981030706845969.html) , this is clearly a sign of advancing age. 

And if you want proof of my ageing, please note that the title of this blog indicates that this is a review of the movie Jailer, but for the past 125+ words, I have talked about many other things. Before I forget, let me begin. Also please beware of spoilers ahead. 

Jailer is a tailor-made movie for an ageing (again age!) Superstar whose fan adulation literally surpasses any logic defined so far in the annals of human history. Thankfully, he plays a character close to his age (a retired Jail warden), has a grandkid, and gets henchmen and sharpshooters to finish off most of the baddies. There is no romance either, even in the flashback. 

This is a revenge movie, of a father who is out to avenge the death of those Idol smugglers who killed his son. The movie runs for around 160 minutes, and to a large extent is well packaged. There are inevitable lulls in the narration, but they are not jarring. There is subtle thread of humour running throughout the movie despite its overall vengeful tone. 

Before I start complaining, I really liked the way the villain was projected. He was a ruthless guy and thankfully, could speak Tamil (but with a mild Mallu accent). And he didn’t do any shenanigans or display weird body language or catch-phrase. It was a solid performance by a good actor of a neatly defined character. On a side note, one of his over-zealous henchmen is possibly one of the best non-main characters one can come across in a movie. The way he complains about having to sit on the lap of a man was just out of the world and I haven’t laughed out hard so much in recent times. 

Now, to some of the loopholes of the plot. Apart from mouthing some platitudes, there is no clear proof of what the Jailer did as part of reforming these the thugs, from whom he takes help in his revenge. One, Jackie Shroff, sends henchmen at the behest of the villain and then regrets it because he didn’t know who the target was; he even appears at the end driving a JCB to help the Jailer. Another, Shivaraj Rajkumar, says he is now a changed guy, but he helps the Jailer with bouncer level bodyguards who are also expert snipers. The last one, Mohanlal, doesn’t seem to have had any interaction in the past with the Jailer, but again supplies heavy artillery to the Jailer. There was one more goon whose ear the Jailer chops off, while in jail, but he sends his Sardar henchmen to support the Jailer. The flashback doesn’t really establish the Jailer as a Do-Ankhen-Barah-Haath kind of warden who reforms prisoners, nor is there any clear debt they owe to the Jailer!

Then there is this whole attempt at a Baasha like transformation of the Hero in front of his family. Now, in Baasha, the step siblings had no clue and so they were really shocked about the change. As audiences, we too didn’t know about the backdrop and so that transformation scene is still a template for many movies. Here, however, everyone – the characters and the audience – knows that this a retired cop. And going by the flashback, he is one who makes his own rules. So why would his wife be shocked by his transformation? 

The biggest letdown however, is the son’s characterisation. He is shown as an honest cop and a loveable family man. He displays no conflict with his father in terms of approach in life either. And to see him suddenly having a negative streak, after being kidnapped by the villain was a little jarring. For him to claim that all his years of investigation and catching the low-level smugglers was just to meet the main villain, with a motive of sharing the loot, didn’t carry much logic. This was a little bit of lazy writing, with the main intent being to present a shock to the audience at the end – the Jailer killing off his own son for being a bad guy. This was treated much better in Indian – where the son is clearly shown as a corrupt fellow and the honest father stabs him to death. The shock that Indian created was certainly absent here. 

And the entire segment about the heist, was quite idiotic to say the least. It added no value to the storyline, and it was hardly a surprise that the Jailer had only stolen a fake crown and the real one was still where it was. That entire portion should have been handled better, and the only good thing that came out of it was the Kaavaalaa song. 

Yet, the movie was still packaged quite well and could tide over some of these irritants. And one doesn’t have to say much about Rajni’s performance. He still has the suave, the style and his screen presence has not waned despite him clearly being a frail 72-year-old man. There are more slow-motion walks than required and he either wears spectacles or sunglasses throughout. Yet, and much to my own chagrin, I couldn’t but howl at the way he lights up the cigar – his first smoking scene in 20+ years. 

All in all, this is a good timepass movie, and with a better heist segment and slightly better writing of the son’s character, this would have been a must watch Rajni movie. 

P.S.: I wanted to shout “Once more” for the Kaavaalaa song. But seeing the nature of the crowd in the theater, I made a sensible decision not to.