Jugjugg Jeeyo oscillates between farce and the pain of unravelling relationships

There are two very taut, skilled scenes in director Raj Mehta ’s sophomore feature film. The first is the opening montage that summarises Naina ( Kiara Advani ) and Kuku’s ( Varun Dhawan ) romance that spans from childhood to adulthood, from innocence and courtship to a cold disconnect. Five years after marriage in Punjab, they live in Canada where she has a successful career and he’s getting by as a bouncer at a nightclub. Their paths barely cross; their conversations are staccato and admin-oriented; they are headed towards divorce.

But first Kuku’s sister Ginny’s ( Prajakta Koli ) wedding back home. Naina and Kuku return only to learn that Kuku’s father Bheem ( Anil Kapoor ) is also contemplating divorce from his 35-year marriage to Geeta ( Neetu Kapoor ). In the midst of these two warring roses, a young bride-to-be is conflicted by her understanding of what marriage should be.

If Naina and Kuku’s issues are handled with a contemporary touch, the senior couple’s complicated relationship status is handled with a lighter touch. Anil Kapoor’s impeccable comic timing is on point as he plays the cuckold experiencing a mid-life crisis. As Naina’s logo-loving brother Gurpreet, Maniesh Paul amps up the humorous tone of a film that oscillates between farce and the pain of an unravelling relationship.

This brings us to the second and most powerful scene in the movie. When Naina and Kuku finally bare their souls and speak to their truth. It’s a moment of rare honesty in a film that skirts around the dark tunnel of hurt and pain, glossing over it with fine clothes and overdressed sets, or simply letting the actors resort to tears.

Mehta’s earlier film Good Newwz also centred on two couples approaching pregnancy and parenthood. The mounting and tonality of Jugjugg Jeeyo is similar, but the writing does not hold up. It takes the quartet of lead actors to hold it all together. While Neetu Kapoor’s Geeta is placed on a pedestal of virtue and duty, Anil Kapoor and Varun Dhawan’s characters convey how patterns of narcissism and egoism can be repeated among male members of a family. As the in-between generation, Kiara Advani’s performance as Naina is most shaded. I was rooting for her.

At the end of 150 minutes, which includes a lot of hysteria and hyperbole, the message is that marriages may not be made in heaven but they its worth giving them a second chance.

Jugjugg Jeeyo is playing in cinemas.

Udita Jhunjhunwala is a writer, film critic, and festival programmer.

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