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.

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.

…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.

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.

…is an average film that can be skipped.

…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.

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.

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!

…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!

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.

…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.

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.