JugJugg Jeeyo review: Entertaining and emotional tale featuring good-looking people

In JugJugg Jeeyo, everyone you see on screen, wears designer clothes. There’s blingy jackets, suits and lehengas. Unapologetic Punjabi humour triggers some genuine laughs. There’s a song and dance number for every occasion every 10 minutes. And all this with good-looking people in every frame. Directed by Raj Mehta, who had last helmed Good Newwz (2019), once again brings on screen a bunch of Punjabi people, this time from Patiala. Also read: Varun Dhawan, Kiara Advani spoke to friends ‘getting divorced’ for JugJugg Jeeyo

The film starts with a childhood love story in school between Kukoo Saini (Varun Dhawan) and Naina Sharma (Kiara Advani) with Naina’s brother Gurpeeet (Maniesh Paul) unknowingly playing the wingman. There’s a scene where Kukoo proposes to Naina with a temporary tattoo on his six-pack abs that reads: Will you marry me – Yes or No? And soon, through a lavish wedding and song sequence, we are introduced to Kukoo’s Punjabi family — dad Bheem (Anil Kapoor), mom Geeta (Neetu Singh) and sister Ginny (Prajakta Koli). Cut to five years later, we are told Kukoo and Naina, who now live in Toronto, Canada, have fallen out of love and want a divorce. But one last time, they agree to pretend they are a happily married couple for the sake of Ginny’s wedding back home. While the two are contemplating separation, they’re in for a bigger shock as senior members of the family, too, wanting out of their bad marriage.

Bollywood has made several films around marriages falling apart and JugJugg Jeeyo, too, talks at length about ‘shaadi ke baad sab badal jaata hai’, but it’s the treatment which appears a bit fresh this time around with an attempt to delve deep into how a marriage of 35 years and a marriage of 5 years stand the same fate.

Right from the first scene till the climax, the film maintains a pace that keeps you engaged in Saini family’s good and bad times and doesn’t serve too many dull moments. Anurag Singh’s story and Rishabh Sharma’s dialogues effectively blend to create situations that make you laugh, cry, relate with the characters and all this with a lot of naach gaana. Even in the most emotional scene, you see flashes of humour that doesn’t look misplaced or force-fit, that’s what I liked the most about the film.

There’s a sequence running simultaneously where we see the men of the family — Kukoo, Gurpeeet and Bheem — dancing with Russian girls at bachelor’s party, while Ginny is enjoying her pre-wedding bash with her girl tribe and accidently ends up kissing her ex-boyfriend who she still loves. And in the same world, the women of the house — Naina with her mom and mom-in-law is at a kirtan where a Guru Ma is performing a puja to make sure Naina gets pregnant soon. I particularly liked this portion for the nuances each character picks and facing their own dilemmas. There are a lot of such moments that you find too real and relatable in today’s times.

The scenes between Kiara and Neetu are so moving that you almost feel like you’ve just heard a Ted-talk. Back on screen after a long time, Neetu brings so much calm in every scene. Surprisingly and thankfully so, she isn’t shown to be this loud Punjabi mom that Bollywood has normalised for long now. She’s subtle, rational and pragmatic about life unlike her onscreen husband. Kiara, too, delivers a restrained performance where she brings in just the right mix of emotions. A self-made, independent and career-oriented woman yet someone who values family ties, she makes her character believable.

On the other hand, there’s Varun and Anil who bring the house down with their infectious energy — be it in their expressions, dialogues, the way they talk, laugh and cry. Anil as the modern-day father is chilled out, doesn’t think twice before confiding in his son about his extra marital affair and brings shades of good and bad in his character. Varun adds life to a complex character while dealing with a dysfunctional family, a non-functional marriage and his own inferiorities. He doesn’t go overboard and brings a sense of freshness onscreen.

Prajakta Koli makes a promising debut and in whatever few scenes she has in the film, she fits the bill. And adding a tadka of humour, Maniesh Paul comes in each time, things start to seem a bit heavy. His comic punches have the perfect landing and I must say, he has some of the best one-liners in the film. His references to Avengers and Transformers are hilarious though they might sound plain bizarre to some.

JugJugg Jeeyo is an absolute family entertainer that talks about choosing relationships over selfishness and while doing so, there’s nothing preachy about it. There’s aren’t any vulgar jokes or slapstick humour to infuse laughter and that makes JugJugg Jeeyo a clean comedy drama. Watch it on the big screen for it’s one of those typical commercial potboilers that you call paisa vasool.

Film: JugJugg Jeeyo

Cast: Anil Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Varun Dhawan, Kiara Advani, Maniesh Paul, Prajakta Koli

Direction: Raj Mehta