Jalebi

JALEBI is the story of love and separation. Ayesha Pradhan (Rhea Chakraborty) is a depressed girl. She has written a bestselling novel but her troubled past is not allowing her to focus and write her next book. She is on her way from Mumbai to Delhi for a book reading session. In the train, her co passenger is Anu (Digangana Suryavanshi) and her daughter Pulti (Aanya Dureja).

Directed by debutant Pushpdeep Bhardwaj, Vishesh Film's latest offering Jalebi is a remake of the Bengali film Praktan (2016). In the name of youthful romance, this Hindi remake is a sluggish coaching class of "what to do and what not to do in a relationship".

Jalebi is neither sweet nor worth your money and time. The tale revolves around two characters: Ayesha (Rhea Chakraborty) and Dev (Varun Mitra). Ayesha is a free-spirited writer from Mumbai. Dev lives with his family in Delhi and is a tour guide despite a PhD. On a visit to Delhi, Ayesha meets Dev and falls in love.

The film opens with the shrill wail of a distraught woman. It - the film, not the wail - continues down the same emotive path for the next nearly two hours with a girl, who is a successful writer of bestsellers, not only mourning a lost love, but also ruing the sheer futility of life and even contemplating suicide.

An estranged couple happen to meet on a train journey where they independently reflect on what went wrong in their relationship and whether they will truly be able to move forward and start a new chapter, together or alone.

It's so ironic that a film named after a popular sweet is completely devoid of any taste. In fact, it's so bland that you may take it for something that's not properly fried and can induce serious pain while chewing. Even if you somehow manage to gulp it down, rest assured its taste is not going to last long, unlike what the film's tagline promises.