Family drama meets cyber age.

A dreamy-eyed wimp is dominated by his NRI wife who has her Evian and juices imported straight from the US while she lives in Juhu, Mumbai.



An MTV veejay settles into a life of domesticity and exchanges her skirts for demure salwar-kameezes when she meets Mr Right.

And a computer genius gets his reality check when he is caught hacking, whose revelation subsequently shatters his mother and family.

Om Jai Jagadish redefines the old wine in a new packaging adage. Its plot harks back to the days of the family drama genre of movies that dominated much of the sixties in Bollywood. The story, except for a few nifty modern touches, still holds on to the ideals of the perfect joint family --- the loving, sacrificing elder brother, the foreign bahu (daughter-in-law) who cannot appreciate her Indian family.

Here's a lowdown on the main characters:

Om (Anil Kapoor), the eldest, works in a music company. He is the upright moral crusader who has to fight music pirates, conniving bosses and ungrateful artistes.

Jai (Fardeen Khan) is the glitzy toy boy. He looks gorgeous, speaks heavily accented Hindi, hangs around with an omnipresent American friend, studies automotive engineering in Atlanta, and never forgets to say his prayers every day.

And yeah, he dreams of making the fastest car in the world. (As an aside, why are Hindi films so removed from reality? Dreams of fastest cars by Indians who only hope the roads they travel on every day need not get too pockmarked in the rains!)

Jagadish (Abhishek Bachchan) is the cyber geek with all the right values. He is a computer whiz who seamlessly weaves in and out of his university computers. With a 'Bill Gates, here I come' attitude, he dreams of creating an alternative to the Windows operating system. The cyber world finally comes of age in Hindi cinema.

The trio live in a sprawling house, Gulmohar Villa, with their mother Saraswati (Waheeda Rehman) and ooze love, affection and ditto touchy feely things for each other.

The snake in the grass is Neetu (Urmila Matondkar), Jai's NRI ladylove who wants to him to settle down in the US rather than India, which goes against Om's dreams of a happy joint family.

Neetu pressurises Jai to return to the US, while Jagadish is thrown out of university after he hacks the exam papers.

Woe befalls Om when his boss Shekhar (Parmeet Sethi) throws him out of Gulmohar Villa in lieu for the money Om had borrowed for Jai's education.

But yeah, yeah, finally it is a happy ending. No surprises there.

The story does not inspire too much confidence, yet the film passes muster.

The slick cinematography, the small percentage of credulity Kher injects into the film hold it together.

Kher made an unconventional debut as an actor in Mahesh Bhatt's Saaransh (1984). He was 28 when he essayed the role of a retired schoolteacher with a conviction that instantly set him apart from the other wannabes that flock to Bollywood.

Unfortunately, his debut as director lacks the individualism that will set it apart from standard Bollywood fare.

Sure, Om Jai Jagadish is entertaining. It has the right gloss, the necessary Bollywood ingredients and may even work at the box-office. But for Kher, it is an opportunity missed.

For Om Jai Jagadish does not touch a chord anywhere. It makes you want to shake Kher up and ask him why a talented actor would waste himself like this. Kher has had a better debut as a producer with the acclaimed Bengali film, Bariwali, (The Lady Of The House) which starred wife Kiron Kher in the lead role.

When Bariwali released, Kher had declared it was his homage to quality cinema. This makes you wonder more why he would make a film like Om Jai Jagadish.

To his credit, he puts together a good star cast and extracts fairly competent performances from them.

Waheeda Rehman, who makes a comeback, is effervescent, passionate and poignant. She proves that a good actress can rise above the most hackneyed role. Simplicity, which was her hallmark in her heyday, still comes across clearly.

Anil Kapoor glides through his role. Om is a part he has done many times and in this version, he does not have much to add to elevate his mundane character.

Fardeen Khan could do with another course at acting school. He looks good and smiles sweetly whenever the camera zooms onto his face. But he needs to learn there is more to playing a part than just looking good.

Abhishek Bachchan is much better here than in his earlier films. He looks and acts well enough to show that perhaps he has a chance at the box-office which has so soundly rejected all his films till date.

The three heroines, Mahima Chaudhary who plays an MTV veejay at the beginning, Urmila Matondkar and Tara Sharma have little to do.

Om Jai Jagadish is popcorn fare, best watched with a couple of friends who will gorge on the popcorn with you and pass a few snide comments as well.

Taran Adarsh Om Jai Jagadish

By Taran Adarsh

Vashu Bhagnani's OM JAI JAGADISH, directed by Anupam Kher, tells the tale of three brothers – Om (Anil Kapoor), Jai (Fardeen Khan) and Jagadish (Abhishek Bachchan).

Om is a simple man with extra-ordinary abilities. Working for a music company, he has an unerring instinct for spotting talent, sometimes in the unlikeliest of places. Jai is ambitious and obsessed with creating a fast car that will revolutionise the automobile industry. Jagadish is a youngster studying in college. When he's not fooling around with his pals, he is stuck to his computer, trying to hack into sites.

Recognising Jai's brilliance, Om takes loans from his company to send Jai abroad for studies. Jai receives a job offer from General Motors, but because he loves and respects Om so much and because Om wants the entire family to be together, Jai reluctantly comes back to India.

Meanwhile, Jagadish wants to specialise in computers and requests Om for monetary help. Already burdened with loans, Om flatly refuses him. Hurt and angry, Jagadish accuses Om of favouritism and discrimination. Jai also shocks Om by informing him that he is returning to the U.S.

In one day, Om loses what he loves most in the world – his brothers. Three brothers, three separate ways.

With Anupam Kher at the helm of affairs, expectations from the film soar. After essaying a wide gamut of roles and working with the best of technicians over the years, Kher seems to have learnt his lessons well as far as extracting performances from his principal stars is concerned. But his storytelling leaves a lot to be desired.

The story is old wine in new bottle. It reminds you of the immensely successful socials of yore, of the 1960s and 1970s to be precise. But to give it a contemporary feel, Kher and his writer (Rahul Nanda) have added fast cars and computer-related scams and video-chats to the plot so that the present generation identifies with the goings-on.

The first half of the film has several tender moments and Kher does leave an impression in a few sequences. The video-chat sequences, first between Abhishek and Fardeen and later, when Anil chats with Fardeen, are remarkably executed.

The second half begins equally well and the narrative continues to hold your interest till Fardeen and Urmila leave for the U.S. and simultaneously, Abhishek hacks the university website. Thereafter, the narrative gets tedious, slow-paced and lengthy before it reaches the finale, which fortunately is very well executed.

Directorially, Kher has extracted fine performances from the main cast, but the pace at which the story moves dilutes the impact to a major extent. His handling of the emotional moments and dramatic sequences deserve kudos. Kher's shot takings, at places, are plain average and at times impressive.

On the script level, the romantic track of Anil-Mahima and Abhishek-Tara Sharma have not been developed well. Even Fardeen's struggle to make the fastest car does not come across strongly.

The climax is the scoring point of the film. Although the auction bit looks slightly unpalatable, Kher's treatment makes it watchable.

Anu Malik's music is just about okay. Barring the title track and 'Pyar Ka Matlab', the remaining songs are mediocre. 'Chori Chori', which is foot-tapping and its picturisation is classy, comes at an inappropriate place.

Dialogues (Rumi Jafry) are wonderful at places. Cinematography (Johny Lal) is fairly impressive. Editing (Apurva Asrani) is loose. The film is very lengthy towards the second half and if trimmed, would only help in enhancing the impact.

Waheeda Rehman excels in a role that seems tailormade for her. Her climax sequence is worth applauding. Anil Kapoor is first-rate. The sequence between Fardeen and him, when the latter has packed his bags to leave for the U.S., is proof that the actor is amongst the best in the business.

Fardeen Khan's sincerity shows in his work. The actor is improving with every release. Abhishek Bachchan takes a step forward with this film. His performance is better than his previous works.

Amongst heroines, it is Urmila Matondkar all the way. Although her role has negative shades, the actress handles it alright without going overboard. Mahima Chaudhary has been wasted. Tara Sharma looks photogenic, but gets no scope to perform. Parmeet Sethi is so-so. Achint Kaur and Lillete Dubey lend adequate support.

On the whole, OM JAI JAGADISH is not the type that may set the box-office ablaze, but it may find some flavour with ladies in particular. Should grow with word of mouth publicity.

Rating:- * *

Intresting!
Big AB/ Abhishek's home in Delhi is/ was in Gulmohar Park.

Rana

OJJ, finally on EROS website! EROS got it! I bet in echange of SHARART? Sab EROS ki SHARART? ??? :vsneaky:

http://www.erosentertainment.com/display....id=1031



Edited By arsh on July 19 2002 at 10:18

so eros wins the battle of 'who will make the worse dvd'..
:sleep:

Here some shots from the Video Sound Sharat DVD - Eros or Video Sound - still not sure me!





















Ali

Hmm, indiaplaza claims OJJ to be VIDEO SOUND release!

Om Jai Jagdish (Videosound)

PRODUCT ID: 200302
View Similar Items »


Description:
Anil Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Mahima Chaudhry, Urmila Matondkar
Order starts shipping July 24th
Synopsis:

Category: DVD / Movies, English Subtitle
Language: Hindi



:vsneaky: ???

The film gets its name from the names of the three lead characters who play brothers. They are christened Om, Jai and Jagadish because, as Jai reveals in a scene, their father wanted all their names to be taken in one breath. For the uninitiated, the words 'Om Jai Jagdish' are the beginning of an aarti sung before the Gods by Hindus. Fine! But pray, how did the father know that he'd have three sons (they aren't triplets)? Defies all medical logic! Presuming that he didn't, it means that Om and Jai were nameless till the youngest of the three, Jagadish, was born! Funny? Not really!

Frankly, Puja Films' Om Jai Jagadish defies not just the medical logic but all logic. Too heavily inspired by recent family dramas, the film's sole aim seems to be to make the audience cry, whether by hook or by crook. Unfortunately, the attempt is too brazen, which is one of the reasons why the emotions don't touch the heart as much as they should. Another reason for the sentiments failing to create an impact is that the pain through which the three brothers have to go and their pangs of separation haven't been projected properly.

The story is of a family staying in an ancestral bungalow in Bombay. The family patriarch is dead, there are the mother and her three sons. While the eldest, Om, is doing well in a music company owned by his friend, the middle brother (Jai) studies abroad and nurses a desire to make the fastest car in the world. His studies are financed by Om who borrows money from his friend-cum-boss. The latter has, in return, got the ancestral home pledged as security in his favour without letting Om know it.

Jagadish is a computer hacker who, after being caught red-handed, decides to put his hacking skills to constructive use. Jai, in the meanwhile, decides to migrate to the US, with his arrogant wife, although Om wishes that he stays back in India. It is a clash of ideals - tradition versus modernity. Om wants Jai to sign a bond with an Indian company and thereby take a loan from the company to repay his boss, whereas Jai wants to go to the USA. He does. With Jai in the US and Jagadish in Bangalore (the internet city), Om fights it out alone in Bombay.

Like bad times, good times also come together for the three brothers. Om starts a music company that flourishes; Jai makes the world's fastest car and sells the patent for US $2 million; and Jagadish develops an anti-hacking programme worth crores of rupees.

Here, the boss-cum-friend of Om auctions the ancestral property but the three brothers, now re-united in India, succeed in getting it back.

The story idea (Rahul Nanda) is good but the same can't be said of the screenplay. It seems like a confused as also hurried piece of writing. References to the ancestors is made and it is often mentioned that the father's aatma resides in the house but not even a photograph of the deceased father is shown! Yes, one can't see the aatma but please, at least show us whom the aatma belongs to. Why the whole world is after the ancestral property is not established - you have to assume that it must be prime property.

There are too many coincidences in the brothers' lives. They all strike gold around the same time. Jai's arrogant wife has a change of heart all too suddenly. Further, the computer terminology will make no sense in small centers of India where it is still Latin and Greek.

Dialogues (Rumi Jafri and Anupam Kher) are good at a couple of places only. For the rest, they are routine. A few emotions touch the heart but the overall impact is quite dull.

As Om, Anil Kapoor does well as usual. He is a fine actor and scores in emotional and dramatic scenes. But age has started showing on his face. Fardeen Khan is fair as Jai. Abhishek Bachchan has improved slightly and his light scenes are quite nice. However, his dances are awkward. And yes, Abhishek still needs to take much more care of his wardrobe.

Waheeda Rehman puts in a restrained performance as the mother. Coming after a long break, she leaves a good impression. Mahima Chaudhry is natural to the core. Urmila Matondkar also does an able job. Tara Sharma gets minimal scope in her debut role and is okay. Anu Kapoor leaves a mark. Parmeet Sethi is okay. Achint Kaur is good. Lillette Dubey is effective. Raju Kher and Rakesh Bedi lend fair support.

Anupam Kher's direction is dull. Continuity jerks in the film are common. The story moves from India to the US and vice versa abruptly. He also uses tight close-ups even where mid-long shots were the demand of the scenes. Perhaps, the actor-director does not understand shot compositions. Besides, the pains of separation and family break-up have not been projected well enough. Use of too many dissolves gives the film an outdated feel.

Anu Malik's music is good but the songs could've been better. The title song, 'Pyar ka matlab', Jeena kya', 'Chori chori' and 'Happy days are here again' are the good numbers. Song picturisations are mostly routine except for 'Chori chori'. Background score is average. Camerawork (Johny Lal) is good. Editing is okay.

On the whole, Om Jai Jagadish is a dull fare. Considering that it has not even taken a good start, it will end up entailing heavy losses to all concerned.

Radiosargam.com

Thats strange, I heard OJJ got 95% on its first day......doesn't sound like a bad start to me.

Another review, a good one this time!!

http://planetbollywood.com/Film/OmJaiJagadish/

Old whine in new age
Om Jai Jagadish is a dreary rehash of resolutely old-fashioned values, writes Deepa Gahlot
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Producer: Vashu Bhagnani
Director: Anupam Kher
Music: Anu Malik
Cast: Waheeda Rehman, Anil Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, Fardeen Khan, Mahima Chaudhary, Urmila Matondkar



Anupam Kher is a good actor, has done a range of Indian and some international films, so it would not be too much to expect a quality film from him when he takes up direction.

Kher has Vashu Bhagnani as producer, a star-studded cast and fine technical crew, but like most directors in recent times, he also trips up on choice of subject.

What is doubly disappointing is that the writer is a man of today, Rahul Nanda, who is a top publicity designer in the movie business. Why then a superficially modernised version of the old chestnut Do Raaste?

Saraswati (Waheeda Rehman) is the loving matriarch of a sea-facing mansion, in which she lives with her sons Om (Anil Kapoor) and Jagadish (Abhishek Bachchan).

The third son Jai (Fardeen Khan) is studying automobile engineering in the US. After the happy, devoted family picture has been established, it has to be shattered.

Jai comes back with spoilt NRI bride Neetu (Urmila Matondkar), who is in direct contrast to Om’s bovine wife (Mahima Chaudhary), and equally suddenly decides to return to the US.

Om’s buddy Shekhar (Parmeet Sethi) who had been very kindly loaning him money for Jai’s education, wants it back, or else they have to give up the venerated house.

At the same time Om loses his job, and Jagadish is blacklisted for hacking into the university’s computer. In the US, Jai’s plan of building the world’s fastest car engine is sabotaged by the racist establishment.

The family drama convention would demand that after everybody has hit rock bottom, they should bounce back stronger. So all the brothers succeed in whatever they take up—no matter how implausible their enterprises sound — and come together to save their home from being auctioned by the nasty Shekhar and his money-grubbing fiancé (Achint Kaur).

Om Jai Jagadish is full of clichéd situations and characters—like the sentimental widowed mother, pining for a ramshackle house, and virtuous god-like older brother, Neetu’s overbearing mother (Lillette Dubey) and her cowering husband (Raju Kher); friends deserting at the time of need, and strangers coming up with random acts of kindness—everything has been seen in movies down the ages, umpteen times.

Still, the film has a handful of moments and all of them belong to Om/Anil Kapoor –his awkward romance, his anguish at the family’s break-up, his slapping the face of a gloating Shekhar, and finally joyously gathering up his reunited family. Anil Kapoor’s is the only performance in the film, which is natural, spontaneous and correctly pitched.

Strangely, even the veteran Waheeda Rehman seems at a loss here. Fardeen Khan and Abhishek Bachchan’s attempts to ‘Act’ are just laborious

The biggest problem with Om Jai Jagadish is that in spite of its attempts to upgrade to a computer age, it is at heart, staunchly old-fashioned

Today, it seems ridiculous to paint in a negative light, a girl who does not like oily, spicy food or a career-oriented guy who goes for better opportunities abroad

The clash of values is as tame as one brother striving to keep an old house and the other coming up with a practical solution to sell it to raise money

What we needed, and could have expected from Kher, is a modern family drama not a dreary rehash

according to this report ojj opened to poor collections all across india......
http://www.ebolly.com/news/02/july/ojjbo.asp

Another CRITICS comments!

Anupam's lost his marbles IMO. OJJ proves good actors don't make good
directors necessarily. For such a big movie, here's another example of
shamefully HORRIBLE EDITING. No flow between scenes whatsoever. Of
course,
maybe it's a faltered screenplay, but we expect much better.

Plus, where's the logic one would expect from a literate man like Kher?
This film taxed my brain more than most Dhawan flicks do:

Gramps is gonna hate me, but it has gotta be said. I don't care if he
looks
good but Fardeen is a shit actor. That face he made in the finale to
apologize to Om was the exact same one he made to Urmila in the PTKK
song on
the sea shore. Anil puts Fardeen to COMPLETE SHAME in that scene. On
one
hand, u got one of Bollywood's best talents (Mr Kapoor) and on the
other
hand, you got a hack star son (Mr Khan) who has hardly shown any growth
in
his last few movies. The only time Fardeen was tolerable was when he
was
being subdued by Ramgopal Varma (Jungle).(((I agree he was horrible in KTKKHK too, man film after film, still same old shitty act)))

Abhishek's improved considerably though. Don't know if its cuz he
needs an
actor's director (which I will give credit to Kher for - he's great at
extracting commendable performances from the gifted members of his
cast) or
cuz he just needs more time, but the guy was quite funny in this one.
I
liked the naughty nature of the character and Jr AB's comedic timing.
Suits
the youngest member of the family character.
((((I disagree!! immensely, I think CRITIC has not sen him doing SHARART act in terrible film SHARART?watch it and let me know, how much he has grown? that AB Jr retarded moron!?)))

Waheeda was largely wasted. And that's criminal. Give the woman
something
to do other than just look clueless or hurt all the time please. The
fact
that she was so puzzled by the internet and computers is an insult to
most
senior citizens.

Urmila was good, not great. Not her fault so much so that I didn't
like the
fact that she had to apologize at the end of it all. She's just as
flawed a
character as all of the key ones in the movie. Why didn't any of the
males
apologize to one another also? And why'd Jagadish not apologize to
her?

Lillette Dubey was AWESOME. ((((she is alwys, monsoon wedding or Zubaida! I did not like her in GADAR though?)))

Tara Sharma stinks. Don't insult Sandali by comparing this no good
talentless hack to her please gramps. (There r so many newcomers these
days, I refuse to give an opportunity for boring new ones to "grow",
cuz of
some of them are already so awesome in their debut movies.)

Enough criticizing though. Plus points have gotta be the flashback
sequences to the kids' childhood, the returning home from dinner
drunken
scene and some of the performances.

If Kher makes another movie soon, I aint in no hurry to see it.

5/10.... which is high, cuz inspite of me hating it so much
(considering
what I was expecting), I gotta rate it on the same basis as all
Bollywood
flicks.
:vsneaky:

Which critic is this??!??!

(S)he has an interesting way of reviewing movies, never seen that before!!

http://www.indiafm.com/boxoffice/collections.shtml

Seems strange to have two such conflicting reports.........

What surprised me is the fact that Devdas didn't manage to get 100% collections in the 1st week - I thought that this movie would have managed that easily.

[Which critic is this??!??!

(S)he has an interesting way of reviewing movies, never seen that before!! ]

M. ali .Ikram from PB/indolink, via mail, review, though his site reviewer grants this flick 8.5/10, on par or more than DEVDAS! ???
Prince naz does not like him! But??? mas: