Jia aur Jia movie review: Haphazard execution kills this tale despite an attractive premise

Jia aur Jia movie review: The execution of the movie is so haphazard and so amateurish that you’re left wondering : how do these movies get made?

Jia aur Jia movie cast: Kalki Koechlin, Richa Chaddha, Arslan Goni
Jia aur Jia movie director: Howard Rosemeyer
Jia aur Jia movie rating: 1 star

Two young women are unexpected partners in a touching coming of age tale: this must have been the intention of ‘Jia Aur Jia’.

The premise is not wildly original but still attractive enough. There’s something about a couple of strangers having to figure out the bends in the road ahead as well each other, which can be very engaging.

But the execution is so haphazard and so amateurish that you’re left wondering : how do these movies get made? Is there no Bollywood version of checking-for-quality before the flick gets slung out?

Jia (Chaddha) and Jia (Koechlin) do an outlandish female version of meet-cute, proceed to squabble all over Sweden, while learning big lessons about life and beyond, and deliver a dud. Both these actresses have been capable of much more, and have created characters with heft. But here they get no help from the script, which is shockingly all over the place. Or, as a popular phrase goes these days: `kuchh bhi’.

After a while, a slouchy fellow with a tousled mop (Goni) shows up. His name is Vasu, and he does ‘nothing’, except help the girls knock back copious quantities of vodka. One Jia is quiet and broody, the other is bright and chirpy. One chokes and splutters, the other smokes and drinks. One wears six inch stilletoes and flouncy chiffons, the other short shorts and cool singlets. On a rugged road trip. Oh well!

A random relationship, involving pretty pink gowns and bewildered priests and marriage vows, crops up. There’s also a thread about death and dying, which leads to teary interludes, but we’ve long stopped trying to make sense of it all.