Jia Aur Jia starts off as a promising movie. Kalki Koechlin’s quirkiness as Jia Garewal, is charming at first, but doesn’t take too long to get old. What is refreshing at first, gets fine after some time, and then you just feel like looking for the mute button solely for Kalki. Skip this one. Skip more like this, and have your own trip to Sweden. It would be so much more worth it!
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? 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.
Most road trip movies make you feel bad about your boring and ordinary existence. They are ugly reminders of what you've been missing all this while and how life passes you by while you are busy paying bills and compromising on your likes, dislikes, even self esteem to be able to make a living. Jia Aur Jia, a female road trip movie, sadly has a reverse effect on you. It so random and badly made that no matter how mundane and unadventurous your life may be, you will still feel good about it. Much to your surprise, a film that intends to break stereotypes, reinstates them. An overtly happy person must have a tragic future, the sad person must survive and two girls on an unplanned vacation must sing, 'Girls just wanna have fun'. Even terminal illness comes across as a joke eventually and that's when you give up decoding this film, which hopes to teach you how to live. While Kalki still manages to evoke emotions, Richa seems shockingly out of place. Nonetheless, it's not about the actors, this one lacks humour, heart and a story. Watch Kangana and Lisa Haydon in Queen instead.