"Jhund" is practically what Wes Fesler said about diamonds and their ability to shine. Coach Vijay Barse (Amitabh Bachchan) finds a bunch of delinquent young people from a slum in Nagpur and decides to channelize their energy and skills into the soccer field. It's not an easy task as these hardened young boys and girls have been riding on paths strewn with crime, vendetta, and making a living is their only objective. Vijay realises this fact pretty early and finds a mechanism to achieve his objective - pay them to practise playing football daily. What starts off as easy money for the slum dwellers soon turns into an emotional journey for them as they appreciate Vijay's efforts to bring them dignity, recognition, and giving them a reason to live for.
As if reverting the delinquents to normal life was tough enough, Vijay finds red tapes a greater stumbling block in the bureaucracy when he next wants to showcase that talent is like diamonds, hidden in the darkest core of the earth. His aspirations are met with difficulties everywhere, but he doesn't give up until he succeeds in creating a National Slum Football Team that's fit to participate with its peers in the international arena. "Jhund" is about how rough diamonds are sometimes mistaken to be worthless pebbles, and I quote Thomas Browne here, Vijay Barse's team of the underprivileged, economically backwards players is referred to as the "herd" by the civil society. But, with resolve, earnest efforts, and a dogged determination, the coach and his proteges will rise like a phoenix from the ashes and prove their detractors wrong.
Written by Nagraj Manjule, "Jhund" is a combination of a social drama with soccer as the vertebral column that supports it. It's fresh, content rich, and objective oriented. The use of sport gives it a competitive flavour and, therefore, it has an edge over similar dramas like "ABCD", "Banjo" and the likes that have used music and fine arts as the vehicle. However, the film is excruciatingly slow and repetitive, giving the progress of the story the pace of a sloth. The lack of other well-known commercial artists has both its pros and cons, thus depending heavily on Amitabh Bachchan for all the histrionic firepower as the rest of the cast is at best, sub-amateurish. The music by Anshuman Trivedi is average. The problem with recent Bachchan starring movies is the filmmakers' reservation of a slot for him to deliver a powerful soliloquy about socially relevant issues (go back and watch "Chehre", "Pink"), which turns preachy while stating the obvious. This approach is unnecessary, in my opinion, and it appears as if it's a bolster or prop to the directors' lack of confidence about the films' ability to convey its message through its content.
As if reverting the delinquents to normal life was tough enough, Vijay finds red tapes a greater stumbling block in the bureaucracy when he next wants to showcase that talent is like diamonds, hidden in the darkest core of the earth. His aspirations are met with difficulties everywhere, but he doesn't give up until he succeeds in creating a National Slum Football Team that's fit to participate with its peers in the international arena. "Jhund" is about how rough diamonds are sometimes mistaken to be worthless pebbles, and I quote Thomas Browne here, Vijay Barse's team of the underprivileged, economically backwards players is referred to as the "herd" by the civil society. But, with resolve, earnest efforts, and a dogged determination, the coach and his proteges will rise like a phoenix from the ashes and prove their detractors wrong.
Written by Nagraj Manjule, "Jhund" is a combination of a social drama with soccer as the vertebral column that supports it. It's fresh, content rich, and objective oriented. The use of sport gives it a competitive flavour and, therefore, it has an edge over similar dramas like "ABCD", "Banjo" and the likes that have used music and fine arts as the vehicle. However, the film is excruciatingly slow and repetitive, giving the progress of the story the pace of a sloth. The lack of other well-known commercial artists has both its pros and cons, thus depending heavily on Amitabh Bachchan for all the histrionic firepower as the rest of the cast is at best, sub-amateurish. The music by Anshuman Trivedi is average. The problem with recent Bachchan starring movies is the filmmakers' reservation of a slot for him to deliver a powerful soliloquy about socially relevant issues (go back and watch "Chehre", "Pink"), which turns preachy while stating the obvious. This approach is unnecessary, in my opinion, and it appears as if it's a bolster or prop to the directors' lack of confidence about the films' ability to convey its message through its content.