Jhing Premachi

Plot: Star basketball player of the village falls in love with a politician’s happy go lucky daughter. But the economical divide between their families becomes an impediment they must overcome.

Review: The rich father’s college going girl, the smart, talented, economically poor college sportsman, the village rogue in love with the girl – all the characters seem to be influenced by those 90s films. And likewise, the story mimics these dated movies too.

Our chirpy, intelligent leading lady Jyoti (Sheetal Tiwari) is always trying to provoke the protagonist Deepak (Sandesh Gour) to start a friendly banter. But the two fall in love only to find their families opposing the union.

From the love birds eloping to start their life afresh, to the hardworking hero taking up a job to support their small house, to honor killing - the treatment of the movie is rather mundane. Although the story unfolds in a rural setting, the characters seem to be doltish mix of village and city youngsters. They lack the rugged charm of rural youth and one feels a disconnect with these characters.

The culprit behind this is not just the ordinary storyline, but also the amateurish acting skills of these artists. The wannabe characters presented by the director Shahid Khan just adds to the disappointment.

The honor killing story is unearthed by a journalist couple, and the characters should have been incidental rather than giving their personal relations too much importance. It adds nothing to the plot. They even become preachy giving out a moral discourse, which is against the principles of journalism.

Overall, there is nothing in the movie which could have salvaged it. The movie is well meaning, and with more attention paid towards its direction could have worked out well. But alas, it ends up as just another run-of-the-mill movie. You would not miss much if you skipped this one.