JHUND MOVIE REVIEW CLICK TO RATE THE MOVIE

Jhund is a sports drama film written and directed by Nagraj Popatrao Manjule, based on the life of Vijay Barse who founded the NGO Slum Soccer. The film is produced under the banners T Series, Tandav Films Entertainment, and Aatpaat Films. It has Amitabh Bachchan playing the lead role while Akash Thosar, Rinku Rajguru, Kishor Kadam and others play crucial supporting roles. 

Amitabh Bachchan plays the role of Vijay Borade who is a professor in a college in Nagpur. He is amused by the football skills of the kids in a nearby slum, despite the raw gritty nature of their play. The kids get involved in a lot of crimes like pickpocketing, stealing coal from trains, drugs and so on. How he organises into a football team and brings them out of the crimes forms the rest of the plot. 

With a runtime of close to three hours, Jhund takes its own sweet time to establish the location and the characters. Nagraj Manjule handles the film similar to how Pa Ranjith treats his films. He chooses a location and fills it with characters close to reality. Even if you don't know the backstories you will be able to understand everyone inside the frames.

It is well known that Nagraj Manjule is vocal about politics in his films and this is no different. There are plenty of frames with Ambedkar, Jotirao Phule and Chatrapati Shivaji in the background. There's a song just before the interval that is an unabashed celebration of Ambedkar Jayanti, which no other mainstream film has so far captured. The sports portions have their own cliches but they're captured well.

He has also extracted the most out of his actors, most of whom are newcomers. Amitabh's monologue in the climax will remain one of the most memorable scenes in Indian cinema alongside his climactic monologue in Pink. The newcomers who play the slum footballers fit the role and emote comfortably in front of the camera. 

Ajay Atul's songs help the film's cause and they appear at the right time. But there is another hero in Saket Kanetkar. His background score is the soul of Jhund and the sound is surreal. There's a scene where one of the characters introduces himself as a musician and plays Saare Jahan Se achcha on his Bulbul Tara. When the same character dies, Saket plays the same score and it makes you emotional. The cinematography has a lot of bird-eye shots which capture how the slums are perceived by the upper classes. 

Overall, the film does engage you for most of its runtime, but the second half could have been a bit shorter. Technically, the film has set its own standards high. There are plenty of Easter eggs and symbolisms spread throughout, upon which a separate essay can be written.

JHUND VIDEO REVIEW