Bollywood action hero, Sunny Deol succeeds in effortlessly executing action sequences in this film which are on par with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Steven Seagal and matches them – most suited and comparable to what is suited for their ages. Therefore, the first credit should go to team of action directors Anal Arasu, Peter Hein, Naga Venkat and Ram-Lakshman for designing action, refraining from usual unnecessary acrobatics – that is apt for Sunny, which he effortlessly adapts to.
Randeep Hooda has now established himself in Bollywood as a new alternative for filmmakers seeking nasty and a dangerous antagonist. Vineet Kumar Singh as Randeep’s brother is as impressive as in his earlier films.
The out-and-out action film opens with raw action sequence in some forest area of Sri Lanka where some militants manage to escape to coastal Andhra Pradesh taking with them a bounty of solid gold bars which is utilized to bribe the Indian Coast Guard and Police of remote village of Ramayapatnam in coastal Andhra Pradesh for obtaining Indian citizenship and new identities. After gaining foothold in the Indian territory, this group of four militants, led by the ruthless Varadaraja Ranatunga (Randeep Hooda) and his brother Somulu (Vineet Kumar Singh) who terrorize the local fisherfolk forcing them to evict from their ancestorial homes.
Enters Jaat (Sunny Deol), an ordinary proud Indian traveling in a train to South India who chances upon an encounter with some goons who spoil his meal. A stickler for etiquette, Jaat insists on an apology from these goons for spoiling his hotly served idlis, which is rebuffed by these guys and then begins stage by stage action where Jaat is ultimately leading from one kingpin to the higher and higher kingpins and finally to Jaat is face to face with the dreaded Ranatunga. Ranatunga given in to Jaat’s demand for a simple apology and the matter could have ended there itself… but for the alert Jaat who sniffs something amiss during this whole journey.
What initially seems to be a trivial matter of local oppression by a group of trouble makers, unravels into a somewhat big plan by international agencies eyeing on that huge cluster of 40 villages that is being forcibly taken by Ranatunga and his brother Somulu. With these international terrorists conniving with few Indian politicians since the matter is about a highly radioactive metal – Thorium which is used as a nuclear fuel, being discovered in abundance on the crust of this coastal belt of Andhra Pradesh.
Regina Cassandra as Ranatunga’s wife appears equally dangerous. It is pleasing to watch Saiyami Khe, yet again in a powerful performance as lady Police officer and Jagapathi Babu as a high ranking CBI officer leaving an indelible impression. Ramya Krishnan is shown as the President of India who gives an open hand to the CBI officer to bring justice to the innocent villagers in South India.
What hampers this action flick is that the film has a running time of 153 minutes which could have been ‘slashed’ by at least 20-25 minutes by ‘effortlessly slashing’ its duration… as similar to heads being slashed all throughout this film, akin to one slicing cumbers in their kitchen.
Cast of Jaat:
Sunny Deol as Brigadier Balbir Pratap Singh
Randeep Hooda as Varadaraja Ranatunga
Vineet Kumar Singh as Somulu (Ranatunga’s younger brother)
Regina Cassandra as Bharathi (Ranatunga’s wife)
Saiyami Kher as SI Vijaya Lakshmi
Ramya Krishnan as Vasundhara
Jagapathi Babu as CBI Offficer Satyamurthi
Babloo Prithiveeraj as CI C. H. Sunil Kumar
Zarina Wahab
Swaroopa Ghosh as Ranatunga and Somulu’s mother
Upendra Limaye as
Ajay Ghosh as Ram Subba Reddy
Dayanand Shetty
Mushtaq Khan
Makarand Deshpande
Credits of Jaat:
Production companies – Mythri Movie Makers, People Media Factory, Zee Studios
Story & Direction – Gopichand Malineni
Screenplay by Gopichand Malineni, Srinivas Gavireddy, Kundan Pandey
Dialogues by Sai Madhav Burra, Saurabh Gupta
Produced by Naveen Yerneni, Yalamanchili Ravi Shankar, T. G. Vishwa Prasad, Umesh Kumar Bansal
Cinematography – Rishi Punjabi
Edited by Navin Nooli
Music by Thaman S