This was a certainly offbeat year for Hindi cinema because we had the most convincing performances from the female superstars- be it the art and aesthetic of Alia in Highway or the sweep of Kangana in Queen. And Vidya Balan, with her interesting, swagger-drenched performance in Bobby Jasoos as a detective makes the film more charming. Although it is one film slowed down by clichéd choices of dance and music, it may be one of the easily glamorized movies this year, but it has content- and that's enough to like a film which comes with a strong performance from its lead and a bunch of those from the supporting cast, especially Ali Fazl. I'm going with 3 stars for 'Bobby Jasoos' and going as far as to say that it is one of the better Hindi films of the year.

Bobby Jasoos. Vidya Balan sparkles as ever but everything else is so normal. As Bobby she is residing in the heart of Hyderabad and wants to a be a detective but such dreamy things never come easy.

Movie scores in setting up the messy atmosphere of Hyderabad and many small struggles that Bobby faces. First half raises your curiosity as she deals with her big money client and when she consistently struggles to find her father's acceptance for her unusual job because she is a girl. Side characters initially help making things interesting but as time moves on they convert into unnecessary distractions from the main plot.

Second half disappoints as things get more messy and too much time is spent on distractions. The detective movie starts wandering sometimes as a love story or family drama. Low production values becomes more visible especially in songs. The dream song is totally out of the place. And if it wasn't enough, the underwhelming climax leaves you unsatisfied at the end.

I am going with not bad 6 out of 10 for Bobby Jasoos. It is recommended to watch under the comfort of home to enjoy Vidya Balan's strong performance.

Bobby Jasoos, a film by Samar Shaikh, could have been another Vidya Balan hit with the very novel concept of a female detective, a very unconventional profession for a female to be in, but something is amiss which hasn’t worked in its favour. Post ‘The Dirty Picture’ and ‘Kahaani’, Vidya Balan has set her own benchmarking level of performance quite high. Her ‘Ghanchakkar’ was super flop, and ‘Shaadi ke Side Effects’ could do only decent business. Bobby Jasoos probably faltered as far as the script is concerned; otherwise, its concept had all the elements of another blockbuster in Vidya’s kitty. But yes, it is a movie, which prompts us to pursue our dreams irrespective of challenges.

Bilkis Ahmed aka Bobby (Vidya Balan) is so passionate about proving her mettle as a detective against the wishes of her family. Only her mother Zebo (Supriya Pathak) supports her whereas father (Rajendra Gupta) and others at home are dead against her detective job. Her father has a conservative approach and he feels that the house shall not be run with the girl’s earning. He also feels that Bobby is a disgrace to the family due to her profession. Zebo does bring smile to our face while she tries to defend Bobby and her detective activities. Bobby keeps trying her luck at G-Force detective agency in spite of facing rejections from the agency again and again. She starts her own detective agency after challenging the agency. She handles insipid cases like worried parents, suspicious spouses etc. A tea shop person Munna (Aakash Dahiya) does help her to get clients.

She dons variety of looks viz. that of a beggar, palmist, bangle-seller, astrologer, peon, a TV producer etc. as part of her solving cases effortlessly. She approaches every case on the basis of her intuition and gut feeling and chooses strange paths to crack the same.

Her familiarity with the streets of Mughalpura Mohalla of old Hyderabad fetches her a strange case from Anees Khan (Kiran Kumar) to find out two missing young girls with strange birthmarks, followed by search for a guy as well. She is paid hefty amount. Anees just wants Bobby to do her job without raising any question about his motive in looking out for these missing people. Bobby goes ahead following her mind and heart, but then, she starts doubting the motive of Anees behind his search for the girls. The story moves ahead from there. Indeed, suspense is maintained till the very end. Ali Fazal as a TV anchor Tassavur Shaikh has given a very sweet performance. He is ambitious and does not want to settle down with girls of Mughalpura. And to escape from the marriage proposals brought to him by his father (Vinay Varma), he takes the help from Bobby to explore some stories about them so that he could conveniently deny those proposals. It is interesting to see Bobby and Tassavur together and how their relationship goes to the next level. What events unfold in the lives of Bobby Jasoos? Is she able to win her father’s approval and love? Watch it

No doubt Vidya tries her best to deliver another great performance of her career as projected, learning the Hyderabadi accent well. But in reality, she not even gets close to the legendary Sanjeev Kumar doing nine different roles in NAYA DIN NAYI RAAT (1974), if only one wants to study the same in comparison terms. Hari Bhai (as fondly called) did that rare splendid act to perfection and Vidya’s most of the getups were not even properly done with padding visibly coming out of her arms in one of the ugly ones. Plus keeping in mind her last venture GHANCHAKKAR, I am forced to assume that Vidya is now probably gone into the avoidable zone of over-confidence experimenting with many new concepts. But her vision is not being properly reciprocated and understood well by the directors she is working with. And BOBBY JASOOS is the perfect example of the same, evidently.
Anyway in spite of all its big shortcomings, the two major positive points about the film remain that firstly it’s a different genre (a detective film) bravely tried by the makers after a long time. And secondly where we did have many male detectives in the past like DO JASOOS (1975), GOPICHAND JASOOS (1982)and more, we never really had a lady detective portrayed as the lead character in a film as well in its title ever before in the history of Hindi Films. So BOBBY JASOOS at least deserves some extra marks for these two positive points alone but can also easily be skipped till its Cable or Home Video release in the coming months.