Unveiling the bad elements in the society, Prakash Jha has created a special genre for his kind of films. While the story in ‘Jai Gangaajal‘ could be expected to be as predictable to the core, the movie offers bit more with the power-packed performances from Priyanka Chopra (playing Abha Mathur), Manav Kaul (playing local MLA Babloo Pandey) and Ninad Kamat (playing Babloo’s brother Dabloo Pandey).

Jha is best known to portray the social stigmas in his stories and this story goes no different. Samanta Group is in the village to buy, or to put it better, forcefully buy the land for their 1600 MW Thermal Power Plant, but few land owners, in fear of losing their source of livelihood, are reluctant to part with their piece of land. However, it seems a tough task when local MLA’s brother is on the opposite side. That’s where the drama unfolds.

The movie is based in Bankipur whose SP is transferred after he decides to take action against BN Singh, the corrupt cop, for being an accomplice to the wrongdoings of the local goons. Replacing him is Abha Mathur (Priyanka Chopra) who is being given an independent charge on the insistence of Chaudhary (Kiran Karmarkar), the CM-in-waiting. He assumes that she will help him in return of his favours while he works his way in the State Elections. But soon he discovers that Abha is here to do the real job instead of being a puppet in his hands. However the notification of State Elections restrains him to affect her transfer. This gives Abha Mathur a clear way to do the real job i.e. to maintain law and order in the area and she certainly lives by example for her juniors. In one of the scenes, when a junior sees Abha taking on the wrongdoer goons in open market, he confesses to her, “Aaj aap humey mard bana diye hai, hum toh soche the ki hum napunsak hi mar jaayenge.”

However, the surprise package in the movie is director, Prakash Jha himself but as an actor. While he has always impressed the audience with his directorship, he does not seem a less actor on screen while he plays the corrupt cop, BN Singh, who wears Khaki but is on the payroll of the corrupt politicians and land mafia. And mind it, it is no less an achievement when he manages to outplay Priyanka too in few of the scenes. Though BN Singh is happy with his shades of grey, one incident pushes him to come clean in white, or to put it better, to get drenched in Khaki.

While the movie touches many sensitive issues including land-mafia, plight of debt-ridden farmers, corrupt police and politicians, the slight sarcastic humour in between the lines punches hard. Dialogue writing also deserves a special mention here since many of the dialogues e.g. “aapko galat misguide kiya ja raha hai” etc. are able to leave much more impact than they were supposed to leave. When the public says, “jo janta ko lootega, uska suicide”, it portrays more anger and certainly cautions not to underestimate the power of the common man.

And while Abha Mathur is all determined to clean up the mess in the area, she has an order from her senior officials – “they are the system, we can’t mess with them”. The harsh reality of the handicapped power of the Khaki uniform would not have been portrayed better than this.

But does Abha Mathur manage to finally clean the system? Watch Jai Gangaajal this weekend to know that and for all the action and drama it offers.