Jaatra 2016: My Review
“Money often costs too much” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
– And, I guess nothing costs as much as money itself
Regardless of what one might say, all of our lives revolves around money to major extent. You can never have enough of it, and you’ll always need more. We work hard, we break the sweat just to earn enough or a lot, just to live yet another day. The central idea of the movie is based on how hard a situation without enough money can get, how hard is it to go by the daily life in the city with the society and your family members pestering you for not earning enough, or for not earning at all. Jaatra all in its simplicity shows the struggle of three different family (Shopkeepers) with a touch of exceptional humor. The movie is a mix of comedy and an emotional touch with a darker side to it. Jaatra is written and directed by Pradip Bhattarai.
The movie starts, right off with a gentle development of struggle and hardship impinged upon the three shopkeepers by their penurious condition. The central story primarily revolves around the Protagonist, ” Fadinandra” played by Bipin Karki: and two Deuteragonist, “Munna”, a barber played by Rabindra Jha and a fancy shop owner “Joyash” played by Rabindra Singh Baniya. The first section of the movie beings by delineating their struggle and suffering as a working class citizen. Right from the start the humor in movie grasps the audiences interest, as the story goes on developing, the suspense of the movie grasps you even harder, it just keeps you going. There are no songs in the movie or irrational/unnecessary sub plots, the story develops very smoothly and in a very exciting way.
The Protagonist who is struggling financially and is in dire need of large sum of money, accidentally runs into a bag filled with 3 corer rupees, which he later learns to have been robbed from a bank. Appalled by the large sum of money he ceases his daily life. Irresolute on how to proceed with the money he struggles gravely, his struggle to earn money turns into this struggle to figure out what to do with the money. The other two characters get mixed in, and the main story of the movie takes place, the struggle of those three characters in an attempt to safely utilize the money and of course be safe from the law and the actual people who stole the money, who are now desperately looking for the money.
The movie is filled with excitement, thrill, suspense and of course an impeccable humor! The character of Munna is exceptional, his punchline, the one lines- they are just amazingly hilarious. At the same time, the emotional side of the movie is very well portrayed by Barsha Raut, who has manged to execute the role oh so beautifully. The movie is too good to be true! It has everything in it! A full drama package and no unnecessary story line, plots of unnecessary songs. The only thing that can be a turn off to some extent is it’s very long and some of the segments are unnecessarily lengthy, they’re good but could have been shortened, specially one of the fight scene (Spoiler Alert- and the scene where Munna loses the money two times!). But even then the fight scene is not melodramatic, it just shows a real word fight fists, punches and biting.
Jaatra has to be one of the most fun and one of the best Nepali movie in recent years. The story line is so beautifully and smoothly developed, its creative and it just keeps you going, all in all it just shows you a Jaatra in the life of three characters. The suspense of the story is exciting and left to the last bit of it, to the last scene of the movie. I highly recommend you to watch the movie, definitely worth it! Nepali movies are getting better day by day and we’ve got to watch it more and promote it so that the artists and directors will be more motivated to give us even better movies!
Ratings: 4/5
Here’s the trailer:
