Business rating: 1/5 (One star)
Star cast: R. Madhavan, Bipasha Basu, Omi Vaidya, Helen, Milind Soman, Dipannita Sharma Atwal, Mrinalini Sharma.
What’s Good: A few comedy scenes; the music.
What’s Bad: The defective screenplay; the uninspiring and meaningless second half.
Verdict: Jodi Breakers is a dull show. It will not be able to break even.
Loo break: Several.
Watch or Not?: Watch it for the performances and the music, but do not expect much else.
Prasar Visions’ Jodi Breakers (UA) is the story of Sid (R. Madhavan) and Sonali (Bipasha Basu), both of who are professional divorce facilitators. They make warring couples divorce one another more easily than usual. Sid has himself gone through a divorce and is sadder to have lost his car (taken by his wife) than his wife. Sid and Sonali meet one day and decide to work in partnership. Their partner in crime is Nainsukhlal Patel alias Nano (Omi Vaidya) who owns a bar where Sid and Sonali usually meet their clients.
One of their clients is Ira (Mrinalini Sharma). Sid takes Sonali to Greece, telling her that Ira’s husband, Marc (Milind Soman), is romancing his girlfriend, Maggie (Dipannita Sharma Atwal), there. They even click pictures of Marc and Maggie romancing but rather than facilitating the divorce of Marc and Ira, they, for once, decide to reignite the love between Marc and Ira while getting Maggie out of Marc’s life. They succeed by playing all sorts of evil games to prove to Marc that Maggie is a woman without morals.
It is then revealed that Ira was the actual outsider who was angling for Marc’s wealth and that Marc and Maggie were married to one another. So, in effect, Sid and Sonali had facilitated the separation of a happily married couple and had gotten Ira close to Marc. It also turns out that Ira is the ex-wife of Sid and had taken Sid into confidence. In return for Sid facilitating her alliance with Marc, she returns Sid’s car to him and also absolves him of the responsibility to pay alimony.
Sonali is shocked when she learns that Ira is Sid’s ex-wife and that Sid had purposely kept her in the dark, making her act against her principles. She is very unhappy about being instrumental in separating a loving couple (Marc and Maggie) just so that Sid could get his ex-wife off his back. This leads to Sonali walking out on Sid whom she had started loving. Sid and Sonali’s partnership also breaks.
Heart-broken at losing his new love, Sid decides to make amends. He pleads with Sonali to join him in getting Marc and Maggie together again. Sonali makes it clear to him that although she’d never partner him again, she would work with him this one last time so that she could undo the wrong committed by her inadvertently. Sid and Sonali seek the assistance of Marc’s grandmother (Helen) who lives in Goa. The grandmother manages to call Marc and Maggie to Goa to her house and feigns ignorance about their breakup.
What happens then? Do Sid and Sonali succeed in their mission of uniting Marc and Maggie? Or is it impossible to bring Marc and Maggie together again? Does the separated couple ever get to know of the role played by Sid and Sonali in their breakup? What about Ira? Does she get to know of Sid and Sonali’s mission? What is her stand? And does Sonali forgive Sid?
Jodi Breakers Review: Script Analysis
Sanyukta Chawla’s story about two divorce facilitators messing it up and, in the process, also messing up their own relationship is quite novel but that’s about all! Beyond that, the drama is full of loopholes. Screenplay writer Aakash Kaushik has done a job that leaves a lot to be desired. The biggest defect of the screenplay is that the film’s second half – the entire drama created to get the separated couple together again, seems unwarranted as merely telling them the truth would’ve sufficed. Orchestrating the drama with the help of the grandmother would’ve worked if and only if admitting to their mistake and confessing before Marc and Maggie would not have been enough – and that would’ve been the case if the love between Marc and Maggie had gotten over completely. For, the orchestrated drama seems to be directed more at reigniting the love than anything else. But the fact that there’s no more love between Marc and Maggie has not been established and so the entire drama to reignite it looks meaningless. Maggie is shown to be sad and shattered, not out of love. Even Marc is shocked and hurt at what he is led to believe about Maggie; if he has fallen out of love, it is not established well enough.
Also, the fact that Sonali is very principled and Sid had to hide the fact about Ira being his ex-wife from her and also the other facts of the case from her is established after the facts are revealed to the audience. A far better option would’ve been for the screenplay writer to establish the fact about her principles beforehand.
All in all, the drama in the film’s second half doesn’t hold. And the incidents in the first half are too stretched to create much of an impact. In other words, the screenplay is defective. Dialogues, penned by Aakash Kaushik, are fairly nice. The muting of the sound in some of the dialogues, due to censor objections, sticks out like a sore thumb.
Jodi Breakers Review: Star Performances
R. Madhavan acts with effortless ease, very smoothly slipping into the character of Sid. He makes several scenes a delight to watch because of his natural acting. Bipasha Basu looks pretty and performs ably. Omi Vaidya has his moments of comedy. However, the scene of his speech in front of a group of ladies is hardly funny and will not be understood by many among those who do not consume alcohol. Besides, it looks a poor cousin of and too heavily inspired by the actor’s landmark speech scene in 3 Idiots. Milind Soman does an average job. Dipannita Sharma Atwal is alright. Mrinalini Sharma is quite earnest. Helen lends fair support. Mazhar Syed (as Sid’s friend, Sahil), Tarana Raj (as Sid’s cardiologist friend, Isha), Paritosh Sand (as the doctor) and Bomie (as the old man on the operation table) provide adequate support.
Jodi Breakers Review: Direction & Music
Ashwini Chaudhary’s direction is average. His narrative style does not get the audience hooked on to the drama. Of course, he is also handicapped by the weak script. Salim-Sulaiman’s music is very nice. Kunwara and Darmiyaan songs are the pick of the lot. The Bipasha song is also appealing. Mujhko teri zaroorat hai has lilt and melody. Irshad Kamil’s lyrics are praiseworthy. Song picturisations (Rajeev Surti and Bosco-Caesar) are good but could’ve been better. Camerawork (by Arun Varma) is eye-filling. The locales of Greece are a treat for the eyes. Sets (Aparna Raina) are appropriate. Production values are nice.
Jodi Breakers Review: Komal Nahta’s Verdict
On the whole, Jodi Breakers is not too much of an entertainer and will not be able to break even. Considering the dull start and lack of merits in it, it will entail losses to all concerned.
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