Frankly it delivers more than its awful trailer promised. But good luck protecting your eyes and ears from this sensory overload.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is over-the-top in this convoluted, over-plotted crime-drama…

Jazbaa is a mercifully brief movie, just about two hours long, but that’s about it in terms of the good part…

A film like Jazbaa needs a constant tension in the story and in its characters given the straitjacketed situation they are in. The pace needed to transcend inane car chase sequences and seep into the restlessness of the characters. Gupta had a good story to work with and he lifts up the second half by several notches. But sadly, he gets too caught up in pandering to his Korean cinema fetishes to polish the story. He lands on a punch line every now and then, uses one slide of text in the end to make the film seem like one that is fighting the cause of rape, thereby completely stripping it of any character. He told us how to hold a coffee mug. If only he could hold on to a script as tight.

A mostly watchable thriller marred by its director Sanjay Gupta’s penchant for excesses — a greenish yellow filter that renders the frames more sickly than stylish unless it’s some sort of bizarre metaphor for Ash’s light eyes brimming in agony, a pounding background score that’s so commonplace it serves little purpose and terribly reckless use of slow-motion.

Overall, Jazbaa feels like a wasted effort, a clear case of superficial style triumphing over substance by a fair distance.

But it has just enough for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan fans to justify a trip to the multiplexes.

Jazbaa, however, is just as much, if not more, Irrfan Khan’s film.

Jazbaa is not quite the re-entry to Bollywood Aishwarya’s fans had been expecting. But she does do a largely good job of nailing her mother-in-distress act… when not screaming her lungs out or weeping her eyes out, that is. Watch Jazbaa for the performances.

Based on Korean drama Seven Days, Jazbaa shows the Indian judicial system working at the speed of light and also a leading lady going over the top. Jazbaa is a ham-fisted drama which is loud and never hits the right notes.

More than Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, this film is laced with unmissable performances of Irrfan Khan and Shabana Azmi.

Post interval ‘Jazbaa’ becomes immensely watchable as the investigation proceeds and you try to wrap your mind around the various findings of the seemingly open-and-shut case.
Like I said – ‘Jazbaa’ is flawed, but the end justifies the means.

Jazbaa will entertain in bits and leave you bewildered at points. Watch if you are hardcore Sanjay Gupta fan.

Jazbaa is superficial. The mother aches for her daughter, but it is the glycerin in those pretty wide eyes that tells you so. All characters are grey which is pretty rare in Hindi films but they don’t come together to make the film interesting. The motivations are unclear which builds an air of mystery but the conclusion so convoluted that the only reaction can be a resounding facepalm.

What could have been a powerful human drama is diluted by over the top performances, incoherent storytelling and an overblown script.

The film gives such gyan on life, love and universe that it seems less like a whodunnit murder mystery and more like a satsang. There is a spiritual spin to everything. A character in the movie says, I like holding my coffee mug close, because I want to hold my life close and feel it with my naked fingers. I laughed out so loud that my cheeks still hurt.
Yep, you can hold the coffee mug close, hold your life close too. I am not sure if you should come anywhere close to Jazbaa.