• Jai Gangaajal doesn’t offer anything you haven’t seen before, especially in the director’s own previous films. It’s also interminably long at nearly 2 hours and 40 minutes. Priyanka Chopra and Prakash Jha’s performances keep you engaged and invested despite the familiar narrative, but by the end you’re overcome by the unmistakable feeling of exhaustion.

  • Shubhra Gupta
    Shubhra Gupta
    Indian Express

    3

    Priyanka Chopra’s too-sophisticated unmade-up-make-up is very distracting, even in her few convincing moments. And the film goes on for far too long, even when we know how all of it will end.

  • Rohit Vats
    Rohit Vats
    Hindustan Times

    5

    Jai Gangaajal is just another attempt at making a blockbuster, but it lacks the depth of Gangaajal and Apharan. Still, there’s enough for the audience to keep whistling and clapping. Priyanka Chopra is the new ‘Dabangg’.

  • Mehul S Thakkar
    Mehul S Thakkar
    Deccan Chronicle

    6

    Prakash is dealing with too many issues at the same time and that leads to the film losing its steam. Also, during the film one expects to see more of Priyanka and her cop role. However it takes you to a personal self discovery route of Prakash’s character which felt far stretched.

  • Once Jai GangaaJal loses sight of all else to become only about his half-baked atonement it drags and dodders from the weight of its stocky dialogues, tediously cosmetic revolt and a leading man of very limited screen presence hogging all the limelight. 

  • Jai Gangaajal is likely to be a letdown for those who expect it to be a worthy follow-up to Gangaajal.

    But if you go in without too many expectations, you might find parts of its fairly palatable.

  • Srijana Mitra Das
    Srijana Mitra Das
    Times Of India

    7

    Jai Gangaajal packs a punch with its panorama (a Badaun-like landscape where girls are hung from trees), dilemma and performances – particularly the one by ‘Madam Sir’, who wields a lathi you will love.

  • “Jai Gangaajal” is another one of those countless police dramas Bollywood churned out in the 80s, with a gender role reversal that is cosmetic at best.

  • Bryan Durham
    Bryan Durham
    DNA India

    4

    While PC plays a strong character, we can’t say that the film has either – strength or character. It’s contrived, a little too long for our liking and dragged out. Watch this only if you are a PC fan.

  • At the end of the day, Priyanka Chopra’s Abha Mathur does offer a role model to many, but the reality too is too clear: A happy ending is but make-believe in the hinterlands of the country. Watch Jai Gangaajal for Priyanka Chopra.

  • Jai Gangaajal falters plot-wise, tries to balance it out with performances yet fails to create the right impact.

  • On the whole, with the absence of new releases in last two weeks, there seems to be no competition for JAI GANGAAJAL. Added to that a great brand value, all of which will ensure the movie to sail through at the box-office.

  • The film is not a complete waste of time, there are instances where you want to get up whistle and cheer for Priyanka. Watch it for the performances; there are quite a few commendable ones here.

  • Jha, who has written the film, ends up giving the better role to himself and surprisingly carries it off too. His metamorphosis is somewhat abrupt But he makes you feel you’re watching an actual middle-aged cop struggling with a troubled conscience and desperately trying to set things right. Thankfully, Jha doesn’t go over the top, keeping it controlled.

  • There’s much maara-mari, draamebazi before the film culminates the way you expected it to.

    From a Prakash Jha, much was expected.

  • Suprateek Chatterjee
    Suprateek Chatterjee
    HuffingtonPost.in

    -

    …shoddily made movie, which is already overly loud, clunky, and at 158 minutes, overlong. Jha’s Kashyap-esque use of upbeat music during moments of action or violence fails miserably, as neither the visuals nor the music are appealing enough.

  • One must admit here that Jha surprises with his ease in front of the camera and decent acting abilities, but quite often the camera focuses a little too indulgently on him. Jha yet again successfully revisits the world he’s so familiar with, the rampant hooliganism, the fascinating and colourful lingo that we are all familiar with, largely thanks to Jha’s earlier films. At two hours forty minutes, the film is a bit too long and tends to get predictable at many parts.

  • Jha, who had first made a hard-hitting action drama ‘Gangaajal’ in 2003, fails to inject any real meaning into his second part.

    Another classic example of when a sequel fails to match up to its original.

  • Even Priyanka Chopra can’t save this film that reeks of token feminism…

  • Komal Nahta
    Komal Nahta
    Komal Nahta's Blog

    -

    Jai Gangaajal is a dull and unexciting film with an oft-repeated subject and one which gives the audience the feeling of having been cheated because it revolves around Prakash Jha instead of Priyanka Chopra. It will face rejection from the public and will, therefore, entail heavy losses to the investors.

  • Jai Gangaajal lacks the kind of raw emotion or grittiness that his earlier works like Mrityudand and Damul possessed. Rajneeti was a casting coup wasted, Aarakshan dragged, Satyagraha was simplistic and so on! For some time now, we have failed to see this champion of political drama making a layered film that we know he is actually capable of.

    Overall, Jai Gangaajal is totally skippable. 

  • Manisha Lakhe
    Manisha Lakhe
    NowRunning

    3

    If you liked the original Ganga Jal, then maybe you should stay at home and watch the DVD. The story is the same as the original but diluted. And even though Priyanka Chopra tries her best to kick some baddie butts, she’s reduced to sitting by the hero’s bedside, eyes wide, saying, ‘How did you manage to keep these files so secret, for so long?!’

  • …just a series of relentless, supposedly crowd-pleasing hyperbole. And so something big does happen in this picture. It should command your attention. The film is centred on it. But you know what? You don’t care. When so much happens, why would you care if anything is happening at all.

  • ‘Jai Gangaaja’ triumphs, but sadly, only at places – at other times you are inevitably reminded of ‘Gangaajal’, only wishing if the movie had the same flesh and rawness as the one before. That said, watch ‘Jai Gangaajal’ merely for its performance by Jha and Chopra and some of the other supporting cast. As far as the story is concerned – it’s the same old wine in new bottle.

  • Sreeju Sudhakaran
    Sreeju Sudhakaran
    Bollywood Life

    4

    After having watched Mrityudand, Gangaajal, Raajneeti, it is easy to say that this is one of Jha’s weaker projects. Perhaps, if he could have focused more on the screenplay than on making it a launchpad for himself, this could have been a better film. Watch it only for Priyanka Chopra, but then you might end up feeling sorry for her! After Quantico, Oscars and Baywatch reboot, she deserved much much better!

  • Uday Bhatia
    Uday Bhatia
    LiveMint

    -

    This is a film that’s nominally against mob justice, but nevertheless includes a scene in which a small child is allowed to commit a dragged-out murder while a crowd of people cheer him on. Jha’s cinema has always been about broad strokes for simple folk, and Jai Gangaajal is no exception.

  • The film is a comment on honest officials vs. ruffian politics in mofussil India, but then we’ve seen this so many times before. What sets the film apart is Jha’s sure-footed storytelling (though he sticks to his tried-and-tested formula) and Priyanka Chopra’s dazzling performance. This one straddles the two worlds of being a reasonably accomplished film as well as a crowd-pleaser.

  • Jai Gangaajal is crammed with issues such as corporate greed, debt-ridden farms, lawless cities and frustrated civilians, but there’s no particular direction to all that chaos.

    If you are a Chopra fan and would love to see her kick bad guys into submission, then give this film a shot. Otherwise, skip it.

  • Prakash Jha, who makes his full-fledged acting debut with “Jai Gangaajal” has managed to woo the audience with his performance in the movie.However, it is Priyanka who’s performance deserves an uproarious applause. The film gives a strong message of women empowerment. Priyanka’s bold avatar is overwhelmingly impressive. Definitely a must-watch!

  • Mudit Bhatnagar
    Mudit Bhatnagar
    IndiaTvNews

    5

    ‘Jai Gangaajal’ fails to live up to the expectations and remains miles behind its prequel. Looking like a rehashed version of the similar kind of films, it can only be watched for Priyanka Chopra’s ‘dabangg’ cop avatar.

  • Those who are planning to give it a shot as it’s a Prakash Jha film, please do not commit that mistake. As this film lacks all the good points, which are usually unique to a Prakash Jha film. So, you can easily skip this one! P.S. If you are a PeeCee fan, go ahead!

  • Exactly how I left the cinema hall. EXASPERATED!

  • If someone from the film deserves to be applauded, besides Priyanka, it is Manav Kaul. He is fantastic and together, they manage to make the film watchable. But Jai Gangaajal doesn’t merit being applauded. It lacks holistic understanding and is something you would watch on TV on Republic Day.

  • BN Singh’s solutions are ultimately no different – and certainly less watchable – than the average vigilante flick. Singh ultimately emerges as a more serious and sorrowful Chulbul Pandey, and all Jai Gangaajal needed was a shirt-baring moment to complete the fantasy of justice delivered off the books and in slow motion.

  • Jha aces with the story, screenplay and acting. Sachin Krishn’s cinematography is top class. Salim – Sulaiman’s music is decent though the background score gets a little loud at places. If cop flicks are up your alley, then ‘Jai Gangaajal’ is not a bad watch, and if you are a Priyanka Chopra and Prakash Jha fan, then it’s definitely a treat for you. Go for it.

  • Despite all its flaws, however, “Jai Gangaajal,” as we leave the hall, turns out to be an engaging one-time watch, and, when we empathize so much with the good characters, we realize that the film does make inroads into our heart. Lack of brevity and the flaws might deter the film from getting its due, and that could have been avoided.

  • Rahul Desai
    Rahul Desai
    CatchNews

    4

    The fortunate thing about Jai Gangaajal is that its politics is a bit more generic and easier to decode than Jha’s previous efforts. But the unfortunate part is that it’s just another 158-minute long Prakash Jha movie.