Jind Mahi

REVIEW: The film opens with the grumpy Harry or Narayan as Laado (played by Sonam Bajwa), calls him, desperate to convince his father to let him pursue photography instead of medicine and not marry Samreen, using that as an opportunity to contrive the meeting between Laado and Harry. Ajay Sarkaria, who essays Harry is playing the gloomy young man right off the bat. An unassuming actor, Ajay is comfortable in his character's skin but maybe a tad too comfortable to convince viewers that he needs to also act a little. As he goes through the transformation from grumpy to happy, courtesy the lessons into happiness forced upon him by the ebullient Laado, Ajay is subtle in his display. For his second film, Ajay is convincing in his role and a welcome change from the usual loud and forcefully rustic male actors of Punjabi industry.
Though Laado speaks a typical rural dialect, a part Sonam has not attempted in her previous outings, the film doesn't rest on conventional Punjabi language punches for its comedy. Heartening as it is to see, the comedy in the film is actually delivered not by the men on screen, but the female lead- Sonam. Though the story is emotionally moving, it has fallen apart towards the end and become disjointed in its narrative, confusing the viewer about what is happening. While the intent of the director (Sameer Pannu) seems to be to keep the story under wraps till the end, the screenplay has not done justice in moving the plot at the pace intended. This has resulted in the story dragging at times in the second half.
However, Sonam has salvaged the film from being ruined. The actor in Sonam will not let your attention waver as she injects vibrancy into a dying Laado, and her outspoken attitude towards life and people. Going from her natural glamorous self to a village belle letting her loose in the streets of London, the de-glam Sonam is just as pretty in her portrayal as she is in her sassy, modern avatars in other films.
The music is another solace in the film and is soothing in its melody.
While undeniably the story of Jind Mahi is refreshing for the Punjabi industry, the narrative is lost and weighed down by the script.