Jagga Jasoos has racked in ₹ 46.27 crores on its 9th day at the box office. Given its budget of ₹ 110 crores, it is not even close to recovering its budget. Well, the figures are still rolling and may move up but let us look at what went wrong with the movie that the audience despite having a stunning star cast and larger than life story aren’t much interested in buying the tickets for this musical comedy detective drama film.
Here are the 5 possible reasons why Jagga Jasoos did not work at the box-office:
1. Fewer dialogues and more songs
Indian cinema especially Bollywood is infamous for the reason that a movie can work even without a decent story if it has some hip-shaking
songs. Jagga Jasoos had more than the average – 29 songs. It might be one of the possible reasons which put the audience off. Broadway acting is not something an average Indian cinema-goer is acquainted with. Dialogues help the story go forward but the same if presented in the form of lyrics can be a bit confusing.
2. Information overload for children
Since produced by Disney and being a mystery adventure movie, of course, the movie is for children. But certain portions of the plot may have been confusing to the children as well. Now, dear parents, I am not saying that your kid is dumb but they may not be familiar with the back history of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s INA march to India, nefarious acts like arms dropping and internal rebel groups in the nation.
3. Fast paced first half
Due to a shortage of much dialogue in the first half (compensated for in the second half), the movie uses fast paced lyrics to drive the story forward. You turn your head to the side for a moment and you miss a link to the ongoing chain of the story.
While watching the movie in the theater I couldn’t understand why Jagga and his accomplice Shruti have to shed their clothes when they escape from the school hostel. Raunak Joy then told me that they had used their clothes to tie a rope and get down to the ground with the help of it. This particular portion appeared for just a couple of seconds and I missed the whole logic.
4. Experimental angle to the detective genre
Although Indian cinema is not at all new to the detective mystery genre, Anurag Basu’s treatment of his sleuth movie is not something you find in every other jasoos movie. To my best knowledge, only one other film The Singing Detective (starring Robert Downey Jr.) is there which has a musical storyline attached to it. With its comic elements, the
Director seems to have tried paying homage to the legends of physical comedy like Buster Keaton and Jackie Chan. He mixes it with adventure stories of Tintin & Indiana Jones with Ray’s characters of Goopy Bagha and Feluda (for example, Shundi is the name of a fictitious kingdom in Ray’s Goopy bagha series) to deliver an unique cocktail, which works for most part, but is definitely a big no-no for the traditional movie-goers.
5. Katrina Kaif!
Sorry to you Katrina fans! While Jagga Jasoos was a promised treat for the rooters of ex-couple Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor, it still does not put up enough glam on the screen to cover her inept performance in the movie. She looks too estranged to convincingly portray her role with understanding.
The critical reviews have been mixed and there is no certain way to call this movie either good or bad but the movie should definitely be applauded for its freshness. Anurag Basu has tried to present the same old detective story in a new format of musical. Whether it runs or not only time will tell but Basu has sure inculcated some new elements to the larger picture of story-telling. With the current scenario of repeating commercial elements to death, experimental movies like Jagga Jasoos should be promoted for the attempt.
- Rim Pacific and Raunak Joy
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