3.5/5
Vijay Borade (Amitabh Bachchan) teaches in St John’s college in Nagpur. The educational institute is situated next to a vast slum. One day, Vijay spots some slum youngsters Ankush ‘Don’ (Ankush Gedam), Babu (Priyanshu Kshatriya), Angel (Angel Anthony), Vishakha (Vishakha Uikey), Yogesh (Yogesh Uikey), Raziya (Rajiya Kazi) etc. playing football using an plastic can during the rains. He comes to the conclusion that the young people living in the slum have taken to a life of drugs and crime because they don’t have any other source to channelise their energies. He provides them with a football and asks them to play daily against an allowance of 500 rupees. Initially, they do it for the money, but later, they get hooked on the game and start playing for fun. He forms a slum football team and leads them to a victory against the football team of his college. Later, he goes on to organise a national slum football tournament in Nagpur. Towards the end, we get to know that he’s invited to form a team and enter India into an international slum football tournament…
Director Manjule was inspired by the exploits of Vijay Barse, who two decades ago, founded the slum soccer tournament in Nagpur with an aim towards rehabilitating slum children. His work gained nationwide publicity when he was featured on Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate. Manjule has fictionalised the events leading to the formation of a slum football team and later the tournament. While the first half has more of the action and breezes away, the second half is set in a more sedentary pace. And there’s a reason for that. Change doesn’t come easy. It takes time. Ankush Gendam’s character is involved in multiple police cases and it takes time for him to let go of his anger and aggression and get a clearance by the police for travelling abroad. Rinku Rajguru’s character is shown to live in a remote adivasi belt. She doesn’t possess either an identity proof or proof of being an Indian citizen. She’s made to run from pillar to post in order to get a passport made. You gnash your teeth in frustration seeing her battle red-tapism every step of the way. Manjule is making a point that the people who dwell in the grassroots region aren’t even recognised as citizens by bureaucracy. What they need is empathy and education about their basic rights and citizens. Otherwise, they’ll continue to be marginalised. The most poignant scene in the film is where each member of the team introduces himself to Vijay. Their backstories have a common thread of violence and child abuse. They’ve given up on themselves and one can see that they see football as a catalyst towards change.
Most of the actors have been picked from the streets and have given true to life performances. Ankush Gendam is a find and so is Rajiya Kazi. Rinku Rajguru and Akash Thosar too shine in their brief roles. The star of the film, of course, is Amitabh Bachchan, playing perhaps the most understated role of his career. Seeing that he’s acting alongside non-actors, he has miraculously shrunk his larger-than-life persona and is seen here as a common man struggling to execute an uncommon idea. He’s Vijay Borade throughout the film. The only time where Amitabh Bachchan surfaces is in the courtroom scene, where he gives an impassioned plea to the judge to see the difference between India and Bharat and give his wards a chance to prove themselves. Bachchan is our gold standard in acting and has proved that point yet again in this film.
While Nagraj Manjule has taken a documentary-like approach, he’s made sure the film entertains as well as educates. The football choreography is brilliant and gives you the impression of watching a match on the big screen. Immersive cinematography by Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti adds to the film’s allure. All-in-all, Jhund is a technically sound film with its heart in the right place and teems with fine performances from everyone involved. Kudos to Manjule for his brilliant follow up to Sairat.
Trailer : Jhund
Rachana Dubey, March 2, 2022, 2:36 AM IST
3.5/5
STORY: Former sports coach Vijay Barse invests his time and hard-earned money to train underprivileged kids in football, to keep them away from drugs and crimes seeded in Nagpur’s underbelly.
REVIEW: There’s a pink-and-white wall, with iron fencing in most parts. It has a gate, which is locked and is being guarded to bar people from the adjacent slum to cross over to the other side where the educated and wealthy families dwell. That image, metaphorically, indicates the zone that this film is venturing into. It’s underlined further with the closing visual of the film, where an airplane is seen flying right above the hutments of Mumbai’s slum area.
Nagraj Popatrao Manjule’s Jhund is not an outright sports biopic, even though it follows the usual beats of a good sports drama. The film is a commentary on what we as a society can do to help the have-nots identify their plus points and cross the boundary to leap onto the other, brighter side. Amitabh’s Vijay Borade (modelled on Vijay Barse, a retired sports professor Vijay Barse, who has trained countless street kids in football and formed an NGO Slum Soccer) speaks adequately about it in a crucial part of the film, set in Nagpur’s bylanes, shot wonderfully (Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti). The camera slickly romances the city’s landscape, especially the jhopadpatti (slum) where most part of the film is set.
Although the proceedings in this piece begin at a modest pace, they pick up wind in no time. Vijay Borade is on the cusp of retirement from his job as a sports professor in college, but in no mood to hang his boots yet. He’s motivated enough to conduct adult education classes in his house for the locals at his own expense. The opposition from his son, aiming for education abroad, is evident but understated. When kids in a neighbouring slum catch Vijay’s attention while playing football with a plastic barrell, he begins to coach them in the game, which gradually distracts from their life which is riddled with crime and drug addiction. But how far does he really go? Do they all give up their life in the dark alleys of crime and addiction? Do some of them or all of them get a chance to leap onto the other side? All this and more is answered through in the near-three-hour runtime of the film.
As a writer and director, Nagraj Popatrao Manjule manages to hold one’s attention for most part of the film, however, the pace slackens in the second half, and it could do with a tighter edit. Also, what one does rue is that the pre-interval is high on energy and the post-interval run is high on drama – a balance there could have earned the film a few more brownie points. There is a smattering of some colourful characters in the first half which adds to the energy and even induces humour. While the narrative moves addressing several issues, there is adequate effort to show some engaging on-field sports, too. The arcs and story-loops for every spotlighted character have been crafted well; again, it would have had a greater impact a lot more if the editing was more focussed.
One of the centrepieces of the film is the subtlety with which several issues including caste divide, societal judgements, class difference, economic difference and women’s education and rights are interspersed into the screenplay. The downside is that some of these issues divert the attention of the proceedings, breaking the overall rhythm of the story.
Words are seldom sufficient to describe how wonderfully Amitabh Bachchan aces the roles he chooses to play. This time, he’s a retired sports professor who, despite hurdles and financial shortcomings, invests himself and his hard-earned money to protect and nurture kids from the slums of Nagpur. Here again, he has perfect and complete command on every scene where he appears – never overshadowing his team of players, always adding more power to them. What also gets your attention is the confidence with which over a dozen kids and young adults, like Ankush (also Don/Ankush in the film) perform. They hold your attention well despite being untrained actors. They are extremely convincing in the parts for which they have been cast. Rinku Rajguru and Aakash Thosar (seen in Nagraj’s Sairat), despite smaller screen time lend able support to the rest of the cast.
To sum up, this one’s a dramatic sports film, which may not have the typical thrilling moments around every corner for you, but the point it tries to drive home will definitely kick your insides hard.
