The sequel of the 2003 crime film ‘Gangaajal’, ‘Jai Gangaajal’ was in limelight only because it had our very-own favourite actress Priyanka Chopra as the lead!  With ‘Jai GangaaJal’ we can surely say that over the years, Priyanka Chopra has flourished when it comes to acting! The story of ‘Jai GangaaJal’ moves forward on the lines of Ajay Devgn’s ‘Gangaajal’, where IPS Abha Mathur has replaced SP Amit Kumar. . And this same old story of corruption and the cat-mouse game become the biggest failure for the movie! The makers do not offer anything new in the plot. If we talk about the performances, from the very beginning of the movie, Priyanka juxtaposes her impression of an honest but firm police officer. The film is promoted in the name of Priyanka, but she has been saddled with scenes that don’t make much of an impact. Surprisingly, it looks more like Prakash Jha’s acting vanity project, as his character is the only rounded one here, and he walks away with the best scenes and dialogues! All in all, you will feel that ‘Jai Gangaajal’ is a weak project by Jha! After having watched powerful films based on politics and corruption like ‘Mrityudand’, ‘Gangaajal’, ‘Raajneeti’, this one doesn’t keep you hooked to your seats!

Poor villagers running around and open gypsies trailing them has become a trademark of Prakash Jha’s filmmaking. So, it doesn’t come as a jolt when the Priyanka Chopra-starrer Jai Gangaajal opens on a similar note. In fact, it would have been surprising if Jai Gangaajal would have begun on a different track. Prakash Jha is the hero of Jai Gangaajal if screen time is our consideration. In any case, you need to spread wings to make a 158-minute film engaging. But, it has to be said that Jha has done justice to his role. He is restrained in dialogue delivery and really effective in emotional scenes. The narrative keeps dragging with strange terms such as ‘Madam Sir’ and ‘Suicide Murder’. The storyline of Jai Gangaajal doesn’t offer anything that you haven’t seen before. This holds true even if you have watched only Prakash Jha’s films. But, it has tear-inducing moments and Priyanka Chopra ensures they keep coming at regular intervals. Once again, the dark underbelly of the Hindi heart land has been explored with explosive dialogues and superficial sensibilities. Jai Gangaajal is just another attempt at making a blockbuster, but it lacks the depth of Gangaajal and Apharan. Still, there’s enough for the audience to keep whistling and clapping. Priyanka Chopra is the new ‘Dabangg’.

It is Prakash Jha's omnipresence in his acting debut that doesn't quite fall in place. Out of the 2 hour 38 minutes that Jai Gangaajal runs for, Jha is ubiquitous in a way that gets unbearable after a point of time. Get the man out of the frame for some minutes, and Jai Gangaajal is a decent watch. The one person you want to see more of on screen is Priyanka Chopra. And that is where the film fails to satisfy its viewer. The film works in parts, largely because of the fabulous performances of Chopra and Kaul. But then, the problem that seems to have found a place in Prakash Jha films of late - that of losing way thanks to a convoluted plot - plagues Jai Gangaajal as well. The story is very similar to the 2003 Gangaajal. The problems in Badland Bihar are still the same, the cop with a ramrod-spine tries to stop the district from falling into the hands of vigilante justice - it is all too similar. The film feels stretched. At the end of the day, Priyanka Chopra's Abha Mathur does offer a role model to many, but the reality too is too clear: A happy ending is but make-believe in the hinterlands of the country. Watch Jai Gangaajal for Priyanka Chopra.

In his latest foray into India's dusty political badlands, director Prakash Jha parades an entire array of reprehensible goons out for their pound of flesh. But the tough-cop heroine of Jai Gangaajal is up against more than just individual law-breakers. ai Gangaajal has only tenuous links with the 2003 cop drama that it is meant to be a sequel to. Neither its characters nor its plot borrow anything at all from Gangaajal.  Despite the topical themes it tackles and all the supercharged action that unfolds on the screen, Jai Gangaajal never really kicks into top gear. Jai Gangaajal is a trite, if not entirely unexciting, drama in which the police force is always on the back foot and the land mafia and their political masters call the shots. Writer-director Prakash Jha, who also plays a meaty on-screen role, has nearly as much footage as the lead actress. Prakash Jha has a perpetual all-knowing smirk on his face in the early portions of the film - well, he is the director and he should know - but his performance gets infinitely better after Bhola Nath Singh is assailed by a wave of qualms in the second half. Jai Gangaajal is likely to be a letdown for those who expect it to be a worthy follow-up to Gangaajal.But if you go in without too many expectations, you might find parts of its fairly palatable.

Priyanka imbues calm charisma and confidence in a formulaic character yet never pedals on gratuitous feminism. Too bad she’s relegated to playing second fiddle to the film’s director Prakash Jha. Or what could also be known as the biggest problem of Jai GangaaJal. Still, despite its constant clichés and contradictions, the foreseeability of its narrative and a deluge of raucous songs diluting the impact of every single chase or lathi charge led by Priyanka, Jai GangaaJal is watchable till Jha lets self-indulgence get the better of him. Once Jai GangaaJal loses sight of all else to become only about his half-baked atonement it drags and dodders from the weight of its stocky dialogues, tediously cosmetic revolt and a leading man of very limited screen presence hogging all the limelight. Jha looks fit and speaks well but his eyes completely stiffen in front of the camera. He seems to be channeling Ajay Devgn and Nana Patekar in action and intensity. Except Jai GangaaJal reveals the conspicuous difference between a man who’s spent a better part of his career behind screen from the ones he’s directed for it.
 

The best part about ‘Jai Gangaajal’, director Prakash Jha’s latest foray into the country’s badlands, is a surprise acting turn by Jha himself: as a corrupt-cop-with-a-latent-conscience, Jha looks as if he has been doing this all his life, so comfortable is he in front of the camera. You can see Priyanka is trying hard, especially in some of the ‘action’ sequences in which she has to kick and punch and thrash, but she’s far too smooth for this part. Priyanka Chopra’s too-sophisticated unmade-up-make-up is very distracting, even in her few convincing moments. And the film goes on for far too long, even when we know how all of it will end, and even when we are thoroughly enjoying Jha’s authentic’ leheja’ : ‘aap ko koi galat misguide kiye hain’, he says, and we smile. I won’t mind watching him again.

While most or all of Jha's erstwhile movies celebrated the victory of good over bad, and relied heavily on the universal binary of good cop and bad cop – the story in 'Jai Gangaajal' did not have much variance. And actually, this is not a sequel to Ajay Devgn starrer 'Gangaajal' – 'Jai Gangaajal' is an entirely new project, however, it runs deeply in a narration which focuses on a similar subject.. The music score by Salim-Sulaiman enhances the narration a bit, but occasionally interrupts. Though Priyanka Chopra as a tough cop delivers brilliantly, she could have offered a bit more perhaps.. 'Jai Gangaaja' triumphs, but sadly, only at places – at other times you are inevitably reminded of 'Gangaajal', only wishing if the movie had the same flesh and rawness as the one before. That said, watch 'Jai Gangaajal' merely for its performance by Jha and Chopra and some of the other supporting cast. As far as the story is concerned – it's the same old wine in new bottle.