40. Jinde Meriye; movie review

JINDE MERIYE
Cert 12A
137 mins
BBFC advice: Contains moderate violence, bloody images, drug and suicide references

"Company chose to remove scenes of strong violence and bloody detail in order to obtain a 12A classification," says the British Board of Film Classification certificate.
No kidding - on two occasions during Jinde Meriye, protagonists are seen suddenly lying on the ground, apparently having been shot.
I have never seen such obvious slashes to a movie release in my life.
Unfortunately, they symbolise the shoddy second half during which Pankaj Batra's movie flies all over the place and makes a series of basic research blunders.
For example, Scotland Yard is not in Scotland - it is the Metropolitan Police headquarters in London and running from the police to Northern Ireland would be pointless because it is also in the UK.
These basic errors compounded a series of nonsenses which just made what had seemed on ok movie look daft and desperate.
Indeed, it is so amateurish it made me wonder why an actress of Sonam Bajwa's standing would want anything to do with it.
Bajwa stars as a young woman who is besotted with her childhood sweetheart (Parmish Verma) who seems to spend more time on manicuring his beard than he does on his studies.
Consequently, her dad (Hardeep Gill), a college lecturer,  is set on her marrying better.
This basic formula is given much more focus when Verma's character, Yaadi, does something so crass that his fate his sealed in the eyes of his girlfriend's dad.
Indeed, he wants her so far away from him that they move to Scotland and he seeks to get her a husband.
This is where the movie goes completely off the rails because, after a few months, Yaadi follows her and gets into even more trouble but consistently blames his failings on others or bad luck.
In its short first half, there are quite a few comedy moments which inspired much giggling from the audience - goodness knows what they made of a second-half where even a hint of reality is chucked out of the window and the plot goes off at ridiculous tangents.
I have read much praise for Jinde Meriye from the Punjabi media. My advice to them is to set the bar a lot higher than this.

Reasons to watch: Well, it is a Sonam Bajwa film
Reasons to avoid: Basic continuity and research errors

Laughs: None for us but plenty for others in the audience
Jumps: None
Vomit: Yes
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 3/10

Did you know? Sonam Bajwa was born in Nainital and studied at Delhi University. She moved to Mumbai and in 2012 and became an air hostess before pursuing a career in acting.

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