In JAWAANI JANEMAN, Bollywood wrestles - and loses - with the idea of accepting an alternative lifestyle
Set out with potential to challenge Indian societal norms, Nitin Kakkar’s Jawaani Janeman instead ends up ‘settling down’ - in disappointing fashion.
So, here is Jaswinder ‘Jazz’ Singh, played by Saif Ali Khan, a 40-something middle-aged man who requires reading-glasses and hair-dye to conceal his greying hair, but still wants to party hard everyday. He refuses to ‘settle down’ (forgive us, Sania Mirza) and wishes to continue enjoying his bachelor life.
Khan’s character in the recently-released Jawaani Janeman is a homecoming for the actor. We've seen different versions of this man-child who refuses to grow up in several of his films before, like Sameer in Dil Chahta Hai, Gautam in Cocktail, and Yudi in Happy Ending. He grooves to his old songs like “Ole Ole” in tight Metallica tees and drops dead after a couple of shots. How far has this man come along, from Yeh Dillagi to Sacred Games and now this, you wonder. Jawaani Janeman is a coming-of-age drama of a middle-aged man, one who refuses to believe that nothing but a bachelor-life could be perfect for him.
The fork in the road moment is when Jazz’s life changes and he discovers he might have a 21-year-old daughter Tia, played by Alaya Furniturewala. She’s in search of her father and chances are, it could be him. A DNA test soon adds a double complexity, proving Jazz and Tia’s bond, and also Tia’s own pregnancy. With one swoop, Jazz has become a father, and a grandfather to-be.
While Jawaani Janeman has its moments of fun and is an easy watch, its themes brings to light that, however progressive India might aspire to be in the cine-world, our films still aren’t ready to reject society’s expectations of an ideal life: a job, a wife and kids.
All our life, we Indians meant to believe that the idea of a perfect, complete life is ‘pachees main naukri, chabees main chokri aur tees main bache’ (A job at 25, a wife at 26, kids at 30). In Jawaani Janeman, Jazz is presented as a man who doesn't want to follow that pattern. He still lives his life like he probably did in his college days—drinking Old Monk, passing out regularly, fooling around with girls. His bachelor pad is, in all literal sense, his den, and he’s the sher that brings home a different girl each night.
Jazz has a family that lives apart from him—a mum, dad, brother, sister-in-law and their kids. They meet on some occasions, Diwali get-togethers and birthday parties. On one such event, Jazz’s mother suggests that his son’s never-settle-down attitude could actually be because he’s gay. Her mindset represents the judgmental thinking of our society, where we are too quick to jump to conclusions that if someone is unmarried at an older age, he/she might be having some problem, maybe they’re gay, or too ‘career-driven’ to settle. We have glorified companionship and being a ‘family person’ so much that even though films try to break this stereotype, they invariably land up sticking to it in the end.
Directed by Nitin Kakkar, Jawaani Janeman appears to be progressive on the surface-level. Out-of-wedlock babies and unexpected pregnancies are talked about breezily and without drama. But there are still limits to this apparent ‘progressiveness’.
Jazz’s bachelor friend Rocky (Chunky Pandey) is his partner in crime in partying at his club and picking up girls. In one particular scene, Rocky is shown alone on a hospital bed after suffering a minor stroke, recuperating from a night of drinking too much. Jazz asks him if he has nobody to take care of him. This scene appears to be a force-fit to make Jazz realise that he will end up lonely, too, and have no one to look after him in the future. The writers attempt to make you feel that, however open-minded you might be, if you don’t find a companion, this will be the fate in your life as well.
Tabu makes a special appearance as Ananya, Tia’s mother, who had had a one-night stand with Jazz in Amsterdam. She is shown as a ‘hippie’, but the movie reduces that way of life into a caricatured laughing-stock. While her character is fun to watch, it deserved a lot more depth and a better script. She's that woman who goes for meditation trips, wants her chakras aligned, and is easily termed as a drug addict. Perhaps if it were Julia Roberts from Eat Pray Love - a non-Indian - the writers would be more accepting of someone who travels around the world in search of inner-peace and spirituality. It makes us wonder, why is Indian society not ready to let people with 'alternative' lifestyles just be happy in cinema?
The film is a let-down in other technical aspects, too. The music is a miss, and mostly comprised of remixes. The acting is average too, but Furniturewala makes a good debut. Perhaps if the writing had stood up, there could have been some better performances.
While Jawaani Janeman has its moments of fun and is an easy watch, its themes brings to light that, however progressive India might aspire to be in the cine-world, our films still aren’t ready to reject society’s expectations of an ideal life: a job, a wife and kids.
Jawaani Janeman has a plot with the potential for a great film, but it turns out to be no better than average. The movie tries to be progressive, but falls in the tropes of its stereotypes. So, the man who used to live by himself, couldn’t stand the idea of a family, now begins to want a family of his own, and suddenly wishes for a companion in Rhea (Kubbra Sait).
(An entire bit of the film is dedicated to how Jazz keeps misunderstanding his friendship with Rhea, and keeps crossing his boundaries. In the real world, the advances of this philanderer would have probably started the #MeToo movement).
In the quest of having the perfect ending and including all possible emotions and conflicts (two minutes of silence for the nonsensical sub-plot of a plot redevelopment), Jawaani Janeman fails to convey what it effectively set out to.
Perhaps, a better alternative ending would be Jazz accepting Tia as his child, and then, the two return to their lives as usual, simply learning to coexist. This would have been far more believable than the conclusion where the characters are forced to ‘make it work’ - as Indian traditions demands us to - and evoke every melodramatic-family Sooraj Barjatya film in the end.
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Nidhi Choksi Dhakan has worked with The Hindustan Times, The Times of India, HT Brunch, and G2. She is a regular contributor at Kool Kanya.in. A Mumbaikar by heart, Dhakan shifted to Dubai in 2018. You can find her art on Instagram @sketchbook_stories and her bylines here: https://nc16ultimate.wixsite.com/nidhichoksidhakan
