Performances by Neil, Manoj Bajpai highlights of Madhur's 'Jail'

New Delhi, Nov 6 : His 'unconventional act' as a hero with shades of grey, rather than all white, in 'Johnny Gaddar' and 'Aa Dekhen Zara' has established him in the league of actors who are not afraid to chart their own course in Bollywood.

With Madhur Bhandarkar’s 'Jail', Neil Nitin Mukesh, who wowed cinegoers and critics alike with his performance in Yashraj Films’ 'New York', lives up to the promise this Bollywood hunk showed with 'Johnny Gaddar' and 'Aa Dekhen Zara'.

A real life saga about the sorry life of undertrials in various jails across the country, 'Jail'sees Neil pitch in with a 'Once-in-a-lifetime' performance as the central character of Corporate executive Parag Dixit who is put behind the bars and forced to suffer the torturous life in jail for a crime he never committed.

Neil’s 'frustrated prisoner' act, together with a brilliantly understated performance by Manoj Bajpai, are undoubtedly the highlights of Madhur’s 'Jail', which also seeks to put a question on the workings of the police and legal system in the country.

Corporate executive Parag Dixit (Neil) is living a life that every youth today dreams of- a cushy job and a beautiful girlfriend (Mughda). Things, however, take an ugly turn when he is implicated in a drug case after drugs are recovered from his car when he is travelling in it with his flatmate Keshav Rathod.

With no means to prove he's not guilty, Parag lands up in jail.

'Jail' deals with how Parag copes up with life in prison where one is handcuffed and randomly beaten up by the policemen and where one has to often wait for years altogether for the trial on the case to begin.

Amid the chaos, Parag finds solace in the company of Nawab, a convict and a warder, who believes that Parag is innocent.

After his 'Fashion' captured the various ups and downs of life in the world of fashion, the heartbreaks and the turmoild beneath the outward glitter, Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Jail' focuses on life behind bars, especially that of the various undertrials forced to spend several years of their life without their having been proved guilty.

Life in the dingy, chaotic and overcrowded confines of a jail is seen from the eyes of the protagonist Parag Dixit for whom it is a world where every day of his life he feels he does not belong to.

With bold and hard-hitting scenes, 'closer-to-life' characters and the unconventional and ''hitherto untouched'' portrayal of world of prisons, 'Jail' is a trademark Madhur Bhandarkar films with his style writ all over it.

Madhur’s film beautifully captures the protagonist’s struggle to survive and come to terms with life in jail and his inner struggle to preserve his sanity, innocence and conscience amid all the chaos and the provocation to turn a rebel. Ably supporting him is his co inmate Nawab, who is constantly acting as his conscience.

Lifting the film are brilliant performance by its lead cast, especially Neil and Manoj Bajpai.

Neil’s expressive eyes effectively portray the varied emotions that Parag Dixit goes through during his stay in jail-- confusion, sadness, frustration and anger. It is his best performance till date, one that is bound to fetch him plaudits from the public and critics alike.

As nawab, Manoj too comes up with a highly understated portrayal.

The film also features Arya Babbar in a key role.

Like Madhur’s 'Page 3' and 'Fashion', his latest 'Jail' too leaves one with a food for thought and a tear or two for the lakhs of undertrials who are still leading a hellish life in jails across the country even before they have been proved guilty.

The film, which releases in theatres worldwide today, features Neil Nitin Mukesh, Manoj Bajpai and Mugdha Godse in key roles.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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