The Jengaburu Curse Review – Rediff.com
This tangled story of fine versus evil might have been much more intriguing, observes Mayur Sanap.
Cinema is usually considered a software for social commentary and alter.
If completed proper, it really works as an introspective piece of content material for viewers.
However strolling the tightrope of on-point messaging and efficient storytelling is a precarious job, and the slightest off-balance can flip the entire train right into a preachy affair.
Working example, Author-Director Nila Madhab Panda’s The Jengaburu Curse, which has noble intentions however it struggles to be something a lot past that.
The ominous title of the present, which implies the curse of the crimson mountain in a tribal language, represents the outback of Odisha.
The story is centred on the connection between nature and mankind with a backdrop of the mining trade, grasping firms, corrupt native officers and the usually abused indigenous inhabitants.
It’s a stable premise, however the present works solely intermittently with the preliminary promise of brilliance fading away as a result of generic nature of drama at its centre.
The story follows the journey of Priya Das (Faria Abdullah), who’s an bold profession girl primarily based in London.
When she receives a misery name from her homeland about her father’s sudden disappearance, she lands in Bhubaneshwar. She is assisted by Mr Rao (Nassar), who claims to be her father’s shut affiliate.
Priya quickly realises nothing is because it appears and decides to unearth the reality on her personal which units off a sequence of occasions that alters her life.
Based mostly on the screenplay from Mayank Tewari, who wrote the Rajkummar Rao-starrer Newton (2017), The Jengaburu Curse delivers a couple of moments of intrigue when it tackles the prickly social problems with the indigenous tribe.
Formidable industrialists seize the mineral-rich land leaving the native folks both displaced or uncovered to well being hazards. There may be an intense paucity of meals and potable water, and a few of them retort with violence solely to be labeled as a nuisance within the path of ‘welfare and growth’.
This tangled story of fine versus evil might have been much more intriguing, however the socio-political commentary that the present makes doesn’t hit dwelling due to the undeveloped drama that surrounds it.
The unhealthy guys are excessive caricatures who can simply take away the hindrance of do-gooders.
There may be mass corruption with grasping politicians and a bunch of vicious policemen at play, and the worth of life to some is nugatory with motion sequences popping up randomly and physique rely piling up extra steadily.
Spaced out at seven episodes, the present rapidly turns right into a cat-and-mouse recreation with its key themes turning into a mere footnote. Regardless of this sudden flip of occasions, the narrative stays fuzzy as a result of its sluggish tempo. It additionally doesn’t assist that even the primary characters are woefully underdeveloped.
We do not absolutely perceive Priya’s equation along with her professor-activist father. We get a couple of flashbacks of her childhood the place she is enlightened by her father about her roots. However as an alternative of delving extra into this backstory, the present resorts to mawkish drama to make us root for them.
Within the first few episodes, Faria Abdullah’s fish out of water act is slightly too dramatic with hammy dialogue supply, however the actress picks up the sur of her character because the present progresses.
Nassar performs his half with crucial restraint, however when the flip occurs, his character finally ends up turning into a parody of comparable characters that we now have seen earlier than.
In a change from his typical baddie avatar, Sudev Nair performs Priya’s childhood sweetheart Dhruv, who helps her on this quest. He has a really convincing character arc and the actor infuses a way of heat within the gloomy proceedings along with his understated efficiency.
Makarand Deshpande, as a benevolent physician, cannot rise above his one-note character and barely leaves any impression.
It is just within the concluding episode that The Jengaburu Curse captures your consideration with the gravity of the occasions that it chronicles.
In these closing bits, the present bares its huge ambitions, however by then, it has fallen significantly brief from turning into the compelling piece it might have been.
The Jengaburu Curse streams on Sony LIV.
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