Jagga Jasoos: Succeeds despite occasional misfires and it’s not ‘inspired’ by Tintin says director

Anurag Basu directed ‘Jagga Jasoos’ (Ranbir Kapoor & Katrina Kaif) is ambitious, and although it sags in parts, it triumphs in the end due to its high-voltage energy.

The first half is slow but the second half takes you around the world- from Purulia and Ukhrul in India, to Moombaka and Shundi in Africa.

“It was like we were fleas on the back of a mad dog who was trying to cross a very busy highway,” says Ranbir Kapoor.

You cannot help but notice the similarities between Jagga and Tintin (Herge’s world-favourite young adventurer). The poster and instances from the trailer appear quite similar to the comic strips, as has also been observed in this blog.

• Take a closer look and Ranbir’s quiff (hairstyle) looks similar to that of Tintin
• The vehicles used also look familiar (but then those vehicles are shown in several period Hollywood films)
• The Chases: Again, lots of similarities with Tintin’s adrenaline pumping chases over various terrains using various means of transport

Read: Brussels Airlines’s ‘Tintin’ Themed Airbus

While the movie slows down at places, overall the film is an extravagant adventure, with excellent visuals, boundless energy, and vivid imagination. However, Jagga Jasoos is an expensive film, and the makers should consider themselves lucky if the film manages to recover the cost.

Here are more Jagga Jasoos reviews:

Review By: Taran Adarsh
OneWordReview… #JaggaJasoos: Unbearable. This one’s a misadventure… EPIC DISAPPOINTMENT! Ranbir shines in a film that’s a costly, boring and an overstretched experiment.

Ratings:2/5 Review By:Rajeev Masand Site:News18
But it’s a shame “Jagga Jasoos” is never more than the sum of its parts. The film’s heart – the moving father-son dynamic – is buried somewhere under all the manic Tintin-like adventure and the sensory overload it triggers. Clocking in at 2 hours and 49 minutes, much of what’s good in the film is lost amidst the many indulgences.I’m going with two out of five. It’s a disappointment, no question about it, from a team capable of so much more.

Ratings:4/5 Review By:Raja Sen Site:NDTV
This is fine advice, for Basu’s film is not only intricately written and plotted, but filled with clever visual flourishes and details, some of which are clues and some of which are magical – and several, like the elephant turning a tiny, twisty street up a hill, are a bit of both. This is a dazzling, inventive and deliciously fun film, a musical mystery fable that curious children (of all ages) should watch at the soonest. This is, for want of comparison, Tintin by way of Amélie.

Ratings:3.5/5 Review By:Nihit Site:Times Of India
For a film industry that adheres to certain rules of using music, Jagga Jasoos is an undeniable experiment. The screenplay is structured as chapters from a comic book; the movie uses a classroom full of kids and their teacher, Shruti (Katrina) as its main storytelling device. The films unfolds as she narrates stories from the book, and we’re pulled into Jagga’s (Ranbir) world of makeshift houses, merry characters and rhyming dialogue.Parts of Jagga Jasoos are greater than their sum. But there’s no reason you shouldn’t head to a theatre and investigate for yourself.

Ratings:1.5/5 Review By:Shubhra Gupta Site:indianexpress
Except Kapoor is too old to pass off as a school-boy. And the bits between his purported teenage self and the pretty bumbler of a journo, who goes bumpity-bump through tough terrains, get a little questionable. The best part of the film is between the young Jagga and Chatterjee. A couple of the spanking songs are great fun. That’s when the movie speaks in its own voice : in the rest, it is trying to be a desi Spielberg without any of its verve.At one point in the film, a character is made to ask : bore ho gaye na? The answer, of course, is : haan bhai haan.

Ratings:3/5 Review By:Saibal Chatterjee Site:NDTV
Katrina Kaif, as a mishap-prone investigative journalist, is hard-pressed to match strides with Ranbir, but the free-flowing nature of the yarn allows her enough opportunities to catch her breath when she needs to and continue to saunter along for company. It is just as well that she plays second fiddle, letting Ranbir do all the heavy lifting. He carries the weight of the film without letting the strain show. If Jagga Jasoos passes muster, it is largely due to a pivotal star turn that is worth its weight in gold and the surreal touches that Basu imparts to the fantasy.