E

xotic looking Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is back in Bollywood in the film Jazbaa. After a five-year absence from the film industry, Aishwarya plays the powerful role of criminal lawyer Anuradha Verma, who works for a law firm known to defend criminals.

The film starts with Anuradha getting a client, Vijay, acquitted of extortion. He promises to repay her when the time comes, to which Anuradha replies it will never happen. She goes to her car and receives a call from a detective friend, Yohaan, who is in trouble for corruption and has been dismissed. His superiors will accept him back, but only if he contributes Rs1.5 crores (US$231,700). He asks Anuradha to defend him, but she refuses.

Anuradha is a mother, and she tries to be home on time for her daughter'€™s sake. She makes sure she drops and picks up Sanaya (Sara Arun) from school. A school sports day is coming up and all the girls in school will participate in a relay race. In the relay, the girls will run with a baton, which they will hand to their mothers. Anuradha runs and wins but can'€™t find her daughter after that. She gets a phone call informing her that Sanaya is in a safe place. She will be returned to Anuradha only if she defends Niyaz (Chandan Roy Sanyal) on rape and murder charges. She has four days to do it or her daughter dies.

Anuradha springs into action and starts investigating the case. She finds out that Yohaan was in charge of the murder investigation so she asks for his help without telling him about Sanaya'€™s kidnapping. Yohaan helps Anuradha get in touch with the victim'€™s mother, Garima Chaudhry (Shabana Azmi), to ask about her murdered daughter, Sia (Priya Baneerjeee). Yohaan introduces Anuradha as a writer, not as the lawyer defending her daughter'€™s killer. After meeting Garima, Anuradha feels horrible about defending Niyaz, but she has no choice.

As the case unfolds, it gets bigger. Anuradha and Yohaan find that another man was involved in the crime. Sam, the son of a politician (played by Jackie Shroff), was dating Sia. Still doubtful of Sam'€™s connection, in the first trial hearing, without her knowledge, Niyaz'€™s wife shows up to testify against her husband, because if Niyaz dies, she will inherit a lot of money. After the hearing, Anuradha confronts Niyaz about the case. He admits to her that he committed the crime, leaving Anuradha highly frustrated. Here she was defending a rapist and murderer for the sake of her own daughter'€™s life.

Anuradha gets a call from the kidnapper saying that her daughter is unwell. She gets Sanaya'€™s medicine and drives to a designated place. She hands over the medicine and sees Sanaya in the kidnapper'€™s jeep. Yohaan secretly follows Anuradha but misses the jeep scene. Anuradha finally confides in him, prompting Yohaan to investigate more intensely.

In the meantime, Sam'€™s father observes Anuradha'€™s defense of Niyaz and the investigation of his son Sam. He visits Anuradha'€™s house and instructs someone she got acquitted of extortion, Vijay, to kill her by causing a gas leak on her premises. Vijay intentionally places an empty whiskey bottle on the table for her to use to cut the duct tape on her mouth and wrists. She manages to escape death. In the hearing the next day, Anuradha informs the judge that Sam may have had something to do with the crime, while at the urging of Vijay, Sam admits that he was at the crime scene.

Anuradha thanks Vijay and he reminds her that it was out of gratitude for getting him acquitted of extortion. Anuradha gets Niyaz out of jail on bail. The movie doesn'€™t end here though as more twists follow. The film'€™s screenplay is based on the Korean movie Seven Days.

Aishwarya gives justice to her role as a superb lawyer. One can feel her character, especially in the court scenes. And Irfan Khan'€™s portrayal of a policeman is full of zest. As a whole, all the actors manage to convince viewers with their roles, but the director failed to bring out any chemistry between the characters.

Yohaan is supposed to be in love with Anuradha, but there is hardly a sense of emotion between them. One only finds out that he has feelings for her near the end when he insinuates it.

The director pulls the emotion out of the movie, especially in the part where Aishwarya gets hysterical over her daughter'€™s kidnapping. The scene could have just been a mixture of normal medium and long shots, but instead it was set to slow motion and slowly faded out to a series of juxtaposed shots.

Thus the viewer doesn'€™t feel her despair whereas in actuality the feeling of emotion is required.

The lighting in the movie has a lot of green, which would have been more suitable for an alien movie. I wonder what the purpose of the green tint was.

The focus of the plot needs more '€œtightening'€. After watching the movie, I realized director Sanjay Gupta intended to give his stance on rape in India. Instead of focusing on the issue of rape, the movie concentrates on the kidnapping of Sanaya, Anuradha'€™s dilemma on making sure Niyaz is freed and Yohaan'€™s story.

There is a couple of social issues tapped by Sanjay regarding corruption and the judicial system. Yohaan'€™s line, which goes, '€œRights? Hindustan mein rights nahin hote,'€ (Rights? They don'€™t exist in India) dwell on the rights issue.

Sanjay manages to captivate the audience with a thrill in the movie though, bringing in twists for viewers to wonder '€œwhat'€™s next?'€ Jazbaa is a must-watch movie, keep the popcorn aside, as it will bring you in for a two-hour ride.