Love and Lure Is Where ‘Jigariyya’ & Agra Is
New Delhi, October 14: Weaving a script for a film around a ‘run of the mill’ romance and tragic end of duo in love is derring-do. One really needs Jigra (guts) to make a film of this genre today.
Despite running a big risk of being dubbed as ‘also ran’, many film makers have tried their hands around this ‘stock-in-trade’ romance at their peril. But the temptation is so high that they fall for it like moths do on the flames of a lamp. The makers of film ‘Jigariyya’ has bit the same bullet and shown the guts. To be precise, the story is no different from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ type.
But lo and behold! Jigariyya pulls it off with ease. It may not have stuff that some ‘100 crore club movie’ is made of but it certainly has ingredients that strike a chord with young minds. In the midst of today’s plastic and pop love, if you wanna a taste of serene love that still flows quietly in small towns and attains its consummation in death, Jigariyya is the best bet, what with soulful music, songs and freshness of the faces.
The debutants duo hero Harshvardhan Deo and heroine Cherry Mardia show promises of being big time actors in times to come, so they pull off the film on their shoulders with élan. You are stirred with a whiff of fresh romantic air which tugs at your heart. Cherry Mardia, who seem coy and demure in the beginning, a cool customer of sort, erupts into a quivering jelly of love later on. The film is set in Agra of eighties, having TajMahal as eternal altar of love into the bargain. The film has devised a small town love story and woven it into retro romantic ecosystem with finesse.
Jigariyaa is a story about a halwaai’s (confectioner’s) son falling madly in love with daughter of an elite and rich family. The girl Radha, convent educated belle, coming from Mathura, too reciprocates in full measure. Shyamu (Harshvardhan Deo) in his role as rustic but intelligently smart lover guy impresses. Unable to bridge the class divide, they end up as becoming martyrs of love. The poignant run from dating to tragic death of love birds come out as engaging.
The story is said to be a real one and the film maker has kept it real too in story line and treatment. The ambience is thick with love in the shadow of TaJ Mahal, the eternal love symbol. Agra comes alive with its lanes and alleys as stirring routes of amore. Filming of holi song is also quite engaging. For one who is yet to visit ‘Wah Taj’ city Agra may be enticed by the visuals shown in the film.
There has been a paradigm shift in the template of love today, what with new modes of communicating feelings of the heart. But Jigariyya transports audience to the idyll of that pristine love where a chance glimpse of objects o desire stirred a cyclone of emotions inside. Cherry looks a bit lazy earlier but assumes pace after sometime. Director Raj Purohit has been able to invest something new in this run of the mill story indeed. Movie goers who are fed up with over the top, gaudy and raucous romantic films may visit this film to seek solace in the yesteryears’ quiet and serene love story of Jigariyya