Technically, the film is not bad but it fails on the content and execution level. We would say book your tickets for Avengers this weekend and if you have free time during the week, go watch ‘Jai Ho Democracy’ or rather, don’t bother.

The script in fact goes haywire trying to justify the hue and cry over something so innocuous. The coherence and tension are missing big-time. The tone is pretty much flat and the treatment more toonish than satiric!

What could have sounded a laugh riot on paper ends up as ridiculous on the big screen. Of course the intentions are right and the situations spot on but apart from a few stinging comments on the polity, it fails to grow into a cogent commentary on the state of affairs.

There’s a desperation to most of the film’s scenes, as if the writers were being forced to come up with material on the spot. I’m not sure why Om Puri agreed to act in a film in which his character is forced to do 17 squats by way of apology, but he did, and it’s brutal. But the film really begins to lose its marbles when a Pakistani army cook risks his life to bring food and water to the Indian fowl-fetcher in no man’s land.

To its credit, Jai Ho Democracy doesn’t have the grating melodrama of similarly themed films like Kya Dilli Kya Lahore and the only thing that changes in the narrative is the outlandishness of the plot and characters. It’s a pity that the film opted to choose over-the-top buffoonery over well-conceived satire. Its a missed opportunity.

…the digs become so obvious, and the intention to frustrate viewers so desperate, that the message of Indo-Pak brotherhood and procrastinating politicians is lost in an absurd haze of theatricality.

…was meant to show the farcical side of politics. It turns out being a farce!

…takes a nosedive in the second half with the lines and the script plummeting to low levels of silliness. The climax kills it altogether as it gets into the predictable clichéd preachy mode. One is disappointed at the sheer waste of a good opportunity and ensemble cast.

…is reasonably shot, well-edited and generally put together nicely. But its screenplay hasn’t been too well thought out. Smaller films often have this tendency to do a little more. The idea is to give your audience as much value in storytelling and film gimmick as you can. After all you don’t have the frills, thrills or spills of big-budget star vehicles. But that’s also the easiest way of over-doing drama. The climax and general build up with the border scenes in this film are too middle-of-the-road. The intentions are noble. But the idea of bhaichara and peace on the border is as defunct as some of the laws and amendments in our constitution. More of the same old is never too much fun.

Director Ranjit Kapoor happens to be the co-writer of the classic comedy Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and the director of the charming Chintu Ji (2009). One wonders what happened here. Sadly the filmmaker is not on firm ground here, giving us a film telling us what we already know, with a story we’ve seen too many times already.

A chicken, Indo-Pak enmity and all-round buffoonery…the satire is not particularly nuanced, profound or even consistently funny, but it’s still impressive because the film is just wicked enough.

Satire needs nuance: ‘Jai Ho Democracy’ drowns in obviousness. This, coming from Ranjit Kapoor, is a disappointment. The intention is fine, but the treatment is far from. And it criminally wastes an array of good actors: Kapoor, Puri, Hussain, Biswas, Bashir raise their decibel with zero impact. There’s a Mayawati-like character who is made fun of, and we smile, but she’s gone too soon. As is the point of this film.

…is a hasty uptake of news channels and papers drawn into a skit that’s too short on subtext to be a realised satire and too silly to be taken seriously.

In Jai Hai Democracy the enormously accomplished actors struggle against the tedium of repetitive jokes about the banality of parliamentarian exchanges. Ranjit Kapoor is a brilliant writer, no doubt. As a filmmaker he is not too successful in extracting thatstagey quality from the material which most of us refer to to see as the rang-manch of life.

…is funny in places, but the team could have done much more with the powerhouse cast and issues which have so much potential to be rib-tickling, if satirized. Watch it over the weekend!

…is an average film that can be skipped.

With a talented cast at its disposal (Annu Kapoor in particular is outstanding) and even a decent plot, it’s a shame that the film fails to capitalise on either. The script loses steam eventually, making the director resort to bizarre slapstick comedy and a farfetched climax.