Jersey Movie Review: Shahid Kapoor And Mrunal Thakur Score Quick Good Runs In This Honest Remake

A sports drama with human emotions is likely to make a connect, and that's why Nani's Jersey (2019) was loved by audiences. However, people really overlooked the flaws and basic faults in the film, which wasn't really a pleasant scenario for me. It's okay to lose some sense with the limited use of cinematic liberty – maybe that's why I could overlook a few mistakes in the film, but not all. That film belongs to the Telugu audience, who might have different tastes and may not be aware of global cinema, so let's just leave that film to its audience and critics. Shahid Kapoor's reprisal, Jersey (2022), is nothing but a simple copy paste, so now it's up to the Hindi audience to like it or not. Those who have liked the original will like this one too, because it simply presents the same story, same emotions, and same film with different actors and maybe different technical teams. But those who are of the opinion that Nani's Jersey had faults will remain constant.

The film tells the story of Arjun Talwar (Shahid Kapoor), a talented and emerging cricketer, who has to quit cricket and do the normal government job. He is married to his girlfriend, Vidya (Mrunal Thakur), and they have a son, Kittu (Ronit Kamra), who demands a cricket jersey from his now jobless father. With no money in his pocket, Arjun struggles to buy the jersey, and after emotional humiliation from his own son and wife, he decides to rejoin the game. The rest of the story showcases his comeback, followed by several other revelations.

The story of Jersey has a lot of emotions and conflicts that could please the masses and classes both. However, the screenplay has many loopholes. Okay, so Arjun Talwar doesn't have enough money to buy a jersey for his son, but he has enough money to ride a bullet bike, enough money to get back to training, and enough money to get back to full-time cricket. We really thought that playing cricket for Ranji was too expensive, but this film proved us wrong.

Arjun is too honest to pay a bribe to get his job back. That could solve all his problems, but then the same man suddenly loses his honesty and steals money from his own wife. He hasn't been playing or practising cricket for 10 years, but just two hours of training with tennis balls can make him a player who can thrash the international team of New Zealand. Jersey is filled with many such loopholes, and I am talking about the original, not the remake. Naturally, the same applies to the remake, as it is just a simple copy paste. There are a couple of changes made in the script to cover the mistakes made in the original. One such example is the final match and its statistics in the climax part.

Speaking of performances, Shahid Kapoor has portrayed Arjun Talwar brilliantly. Normally, when our Bollywood stars star in remake films, they become troll material, but this man is actually matching the original performers with their remakes. He did it with Kabir Singh, and now he has done the same with Jersey as well. Mrunal Thakur, as his wife, gives a super fine performance. That non-traditional Hindi accent and 'Babu" are damn too cute. Her physical transformation is accurate too. In one scene she is a college girl, and in the very next scene she is a wife, and then a mother. Believe it or not, she actually looks different in all three scenes, which take place within half a minute. The little one, Ronit Kamra, is adorable, whereas veteran Pankaj Kapur does everything possible with his experience. In addition to Geetika Mehandru, Shishir Sharma, Rudrashish Majumdar and Rituraj Singh, they make good appearances in supporting roles.

Sachet–Parampara is the new hit duo in Bollywood, and the music album of Jersey proves it again. Not a single bad song in the film, I mean, how often do we see that? Maiyya Menu is a romantic hit, Mehram is inspiring, Baliye Re is too short to notice, and Jind Mariye is again a romance, but a mature one. The dialogues are decent and have that Punjabi flavour to them, which might be difficult for the hardcore masses to understand, but most of the classes will get it right. The confrontation scenes between Shahid and Mrunal and Shahid and Ronit are packed with some emotionally powerful dialogues. One of the major struggling factors in Jersey is its cinematography. All the cricket shots look feeble, especially for those who watch cricket regularly and know the nuances of it. They will definitely find it mediocre. That's okay. I mean, not every film can be like '83 or Lagaan with that.

Gowtam Tinnanuri has made Jersey relatable for all age groups (even the original). That's one of the biggest strengths of the film. Those loopholes are likely to be overlooked by the masses and regular movie covers, so it's a good, watchable product for those who will be watching it as a fresh film. Gowtam keeps the substantial elements intact, while he also juggles between the fictional dramatic conflicts and real life sense. Jersey is still a believable story and doesn't lack too much sense. It's only the problem of human drama being too applicable and repetitive.

Late age comebacks, comebacks for honour, getting ignored by close ones, doing impossible things possible, and bla bla. Haven't we seen all of this stuff in too many movies before? These are all cliches, but the regional audience doesn't know that. Jersey is for that kind of audience who doesn't think too much about deep logic, who doesn't use too much of their brain, or better yet, who doesn't overthink. The major chunk of our audience belongs to that, so let Jersey have its chance. As a whole, it's an honest action replay of the original Telugu match, powered by Shahid Kapoor and Mrunal Thakur's excellent innings.