As Bollywood stars get old, they find new ways to remain young. This has resulted in a specific kind of character, the ‘jaded Casanova’, someone who recognises his age and yet refuses to be responsible. He’s single, flirts around and drinks till the late hours of the night. It’s his age, though, that gives his story a central conflict. He once had a family, which now demands answers from him, forcing the man-child to grow up.
In the last few months, two Bollywood films have emerged from a similar storyline: Ajay Devgn-starrer De De Pyaar De (2019) and the recently released Jawaani Jaaneman (2020) helmed by Saif Ali Khan. Coincidentally, both films have Tabu as the heroine, who, content to play her age, doesn’t look in any agonising hurry to time travel. Both films are also set in London and, as has become the norm, take their titles from old Bollywood songs. But the similarity ends there.
Unlike Devgn, Khan is much more lively and charismatic. He’s considerably self-aware, too, and has a natural knack for humour. So when we see the 40-year-old Jazz (Khan), a real-estate broker, frequenting night clubs and flirting with women half his age, we don’t cringe on his behalf. Sure, it still does look slightly embarrassing (which is also the point), but Jazz is in that game, owning that awkwardness.
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One night, Jazz visits his favourite night club, owned by his friend, and meets 21-year-old Tia (Alaya Furniturewala). As if on auto-pilot, Jazz flirts with her and asks if they can chat somewhere quiet. They end up at his pad, where he repeats his routine: gives her wine, turns the light dim, flirts more. It is here that the film takes a turn. Just before Jazz is about to make a move, Tia tells him that there’s a 33% chance that he could be her…dad. Would he be considerate enough to take a DNA test? Jazz is aghast and flat-out refuses.
In the next scene, we see him at the hospital. Turns out, Jazz is her dad. This monumental plot point would have compelled most Bollywood films to turn on their head, reverential as they are about the ‘responsibilities’ of parent figures. But Nitin Kakkar’s Jawaani Jaaneman takes its cues from life, and in this movie, life simply goes on.
The new revelation doesn’t change either Tia or Jazz. There are no melodramatic strains about parenthood. A lot of credit for that goes to not just Khan but also Furniturewala who, in her debut, lends her role a refreshing levity and impressive conviction, making the remarkable credible.
Despite screenwriting and acting ingenuity, though, the film occasionally falls prey to clichés. Like many Bollywood films set outside India, Jawaani Jaaneman manages to find Indians everywhere. Most of the girls Jazz bumps into at the night club are Indians. So is the doctor at the hospital where Tia gets her DNA test. Jazz speaks to his clients in Hindi (even though a few of them seem native Londoners). Even a random guy standing in the queue behind Jazz, when he goes to pay the electricity bill, is an Indian – and this list doesn’t end here. It feels awfully contrived.
Besides, the film’s strong point – Jazz’s unanchored, carefree attitude – also becomes its undoing, as after a point there’s not much to him. Jazz is fun, no doubt, but not someone you can easily warm up to. Kakkar attempts to ground him by introducing his friend, Rhea (Kubbra Sait), which results in a meandering subplot that doesn’t amount to much.
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Jawaani Jaaneman regains some of its spirit when Tabu enters the picture. Playing Tia’s mother who is as disinterested in settling down as Jazz, Tabu’s Ananya is a certified “hippie”, forever sniffing out “bad energy” and delivering anticlimactic, deadpan lines with envious ease. Similarly, Jazz’s landlady Mallika (Kamlesh Gill), an old lady perpetually drunk on wine with a wicked sense of humour, lends the film’s humour another dimension.
Jawaani Jaaneman is most enjoyable when the movie itself is having a lot of fun: through the comedy-of-error set pieces, mundane tomfoolery, throwback to the ’90s. It turns mediocre when it tries to be profound, delivering tired sermons about the perils of being single. Sporadically uneven yet mostly funny, Jawaani Jaaneman for the large part remains true to its intent.