Jabariya Jodi gets it right!

For a film that has not been shot Bihar/Patna at all, Jabariya Jodi gets the details right, including place names and even random public places. Also everyone is drinking all the rhyme in ‘dry’ Bihar. Groom-kidnapping which form crux of this splashy, gaudy, riotous saga , is no more that prevalent in Bihar.

The film wraps its head in a swirl of mischievous mayhem, making the whole cult of anti-dowry groom-kidnapping syndrome seem like a cauldron of conflicts simmering in a scintillating seductive stratosphere. The director knows how to control mob incidents. He plunges into rumbustious wedding events to wiggle out the ironies that control such festive opportunities.

In an all-out image-building exercise, Siddharth Malhotra plays Abhay Singh a loud aggressive overdressed Bihari lout whose family business is groom kidnapping. Abhay has his own bullying issues with his father(Javed Jaffrey, intimidating) . The whole nexus of violence greed abduction and seduction spirals its way from Abhay’s character into a kind of edgy out-of-the-box anti-romance between Abhay and the village bombshell Babli (Parineeti Chopra) who has tried everything to get away from her smalltown ennui. Babli is Kriti Sanon in Bareilly Ki Barfi, Kareena Kapoor in Jab We Met and Parineeti in Hansi To Phansi.

She can’t be controlled. Though her story can. And is.

The  two principal actors  have a whole lot of infectious fun with  their parts. The writing gives them a chance to  banter without the fear  of falling.Writer Sanjeev K Jha knows  his Bihar and director Prashant Singh knows  how much the actors can be pushed into shaping the final  destiny  of a  film that falls  short  of story somewhere midway. In the second-half  the narration tends to get  repetitive  and a little petulant.

Malhotra  as  the  groom-whisking goon  tries very hard to blend into the smalltown environment. His efforts hit some  right notes specially when Babli get too demonstrative for his comfort.

There  is  a prevalent  chaos in the  mood of this  know-your-Bihar-on-google smartass fable of  fiscal  avarice masquerading as social service. It is an opportune subject to allow its two principal actors to  shed their urban plumes and strut in  an entirely  different environment. Malhotra and Chopra  do well, though their urbane personality  keeps  impinging. The supporting cast is impressive, specially Aparshakti Kapoor  as Parineeti’s on-hold love interest,Chandan Roy Sanyal as  Siddharth’s friend, Sanjay Mishra as  her empathetic father and Shiba Chadha(wish there was  more of her) as  Siddharth’s oppressed  mother.

The climax  at a wedding where everyone is shooting at each other seems  to go out of control. But otherwise director Prashant Singh does  an admirable  job of controlling the riot of raucus sounds and flamboyant  visuals.