The Film: Jogger's Park
Director: Anant Balani
Producer: Mukta Art's Ltd
Starring: Victor Banerjee, Perizaad Zorabian
RATING: 1/10
Mukta Arts Ltd..s Joggers. Park (UA) is a Hinglish film about a retired judge who is known for his integrity. After retirement, his family forces him to become more social and meet people, something which he had intentionally avoided during his judgeship. As a first step, he makes it a routine to jog at a park near his house every morning. There, he meets a young, unmarried girl who is a fan of his.
The two get close to each other and gradually, he even starts missing her company when she doesn.t meet him for a couple of days due to her modelling assignments. While the young girl at first tries to use him for a legal case she is fighting, she soon begins to respect him for his honesty and sincerity. But the retired judge realises that he has fallen in love with her. Ultimately, the two meet and decide to part ways because of social and family (judge.s) compulsions.
The story (Subhash Ghai) and screenplay look like a confused piece of work. The makers have tried to make a bold film but seem to have been stopped in the tracks by unknown forces. Resultantly, the film is neither here nor there.
Also, plenty of things are sought to be established through dialogue only, while the scenes simply don.t convey the same thing. For instance, it was never clear that the young model was using the retired judge for her personal gains until she says so quite late in the day. Perhaps, the makers wanted to play safe by not showing the heroine as an opportunist, but the point is, she becomes an opportunist the moment she admits to using him.
The relationship that exists between the retired judge and the model is hardly clear and the viewer is left guessing about whether it is just friendship or true love. The average Hindi filmgoer is not used to playing such a guessing game after paying money and the uncertainty only tests his patience.
Frankly, the feeling the audience gets while seeing the film is that the makers were either scared to come to the point or were themselves not clear about what they wanted to say. In any case, the abstract nature of the film jars.
The juxtaposing of the elderly man.s love affair with that of his grand-daughter (with her college pal) doesn.t serve much of a purpose and looks contrived. The effort to make the film look very contemporary and youthful is all too obvious and the use of terms like SMS etc. are employed only towards that end.
In a film of this genre, wit and humour are what are required to entertain, but the comedy in this film is hardly funny. Making the retired judge so recognisable by the man on the street looks rather unbelievable. After all, which judge would a layman recognise? He is not a hero or a sportsman to have fans galore, but that.s what the writers and director would have us believe!
Victor Banerjee seems to be completely uninspired, thanks, perhaps, to the dull script. Playing a retired judge, the man hardly emotes. Perizaad Zorabian is lively and confident. She suits the character and performs ably. However, she is not heroine material for mainstream cinema. Abha Dhulia lends average support. Divya Dutta leaves a mark. Khalid Siddiqui is quite nice. Hiten Tejwani does a fine job.
Given the insipid script, Anant Balani.s direction is average. The film has hardly any high points and the narration is quite flat. Musically, .Ishq hota nahin. is a beautiful number. The title track is racy. .Badi nazuk hai yeh manzil. is also an entertaining number. Sanjay Nair.s camerawork is nice. Other technical aspects are alright. Production values are ordinary.
On the whole, Joggers. Park is a dull fare. It has some chances, if at all, in a handful of multiplexes in a couple of metropolitan cities only.
