Review of Jodi No 1

Introduction

This is another low and poor film from David Dhawan which joins the list of his abysmal directed flicks like Banarsi Babu (1998), Dhulhan Hum Le Jayenge (2000), and Chal Mere Bhai (2000). The film`s overall narrative is such a mess that I actually was taking notes on how not to make a movie (being a film student and all).

At one point the film cannot decide the tone or level of violence it wants to play at. One scene before the intermission shows the character Sir John mercilessly kill a person in cold blood, while in the climax his character goes a full change and the whole scene resembles something similar to cartoon violence. This to me was a little disturbing as it is paving a new way and method of film-making that David Dhawan seems to be taking, especially when dealing in violence.

Costume designs for the actor Govinda seemed to get more embarrassing, the outdoor locations looked very familiar, and many of the actors are reprising roles they have done past movies which were much better then this present one! Also the comic homage this film pays to the 1975 cult classic Sholay was not as funny as the screenplay hoped it would be.

The dramatic scenes resembled David Dhawan`s excellent social drama Swarg (1989) at one point then hits his usual fare of masala type comedy as seen in his last decent movie Hassena Maan Jayegi (1998). The characters weren`t not as funny, and the one-liners weren`t as clever as in his pervious films. Even the actors looked frustrated and not bothered as their continuity level of performances was ranged and gave the film a rough look.

The music score was fairly decent but forgettable, while technical values were at times rushed and poor. You hardly see the actress Twinkle Khanna or Monica Bedi (both of whom looked fresh and beautiful) which is a shame as the screenplay could have involved them a bit more into the humour. I guess the direction, editing and screenplay is really to blame for the fiasco called Jodi No 1, which was a disappointment at the box office.

Video

The DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 which has been cropped from it`s original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The cropping is badly affected when viewing as most of the cinemascope frame is missing on this DVD. This does have an affect on this purist mind and is showing signs that EROS are not truly representing the director`s original vision intended for the audience. The transfer is presented in an anamorphic mode and adds detail to the overall picture, but not as much as one hoped.

The 35mm print negative source used for this DVD appears to be in excellent condition. The source used was that of the interpositive negative as major wear and tear blemishes was not to be found on this disc, giving the film an overall fresh look. A couple of reel changes did reveal small white and black dots, but they aren`t at all a distraction to the eye as seen on pervious EROS titles, Like Chori Chori Chupke Chupke (2001), and Aashiq (2001).

The DVD had small signs of compression artefacts which didn`t cause evident picture break up to spoilt viewing. Break up was still there and can be detected on rather large television screens (32 inch +). On my rear projection set the picture break up was more inevitable. The disc has been encoded in a bad manner and looks at times very amateurish. Shimmering and edge enhancement was also the weakest point of this disc and showed some effect around certain images within the picture information. Again although not distracting it is detected on a larger television screen. However problems like film grain wasn`t present on this disc.

The film did for the majority of time have some sharpness details which was good, and added some cinematic moments while viewing this disc. But with the encoding problems above it is not as clear and concise as I had hoped for on this title. Yet the information is perhaps the best of the EROS title to come out in months, since their last decent DVD of Raju Chacha (2001). It`s certainly is better then all the recent Video-Sound DVD releases like Gadar (2001) & Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai (2001).

The vibrancy and boldness of the primary colour fidelity is not handled as well and colour details on this DVD was a little weak. Another colour problem that was detected was that the saturation tended to be a bit strong causing the problem of colour bleeding. Same problems are detected with the dark details which were bland and poor in depicting information.

Audio

The 5.1 Dolby Digital sound is the best thing this disc offers. While a bit too strong and overpowering on the front channels, it remains quite crisp and clear. The Soundtrack is very immersing on the ears and an improvement on the cinema showing as more sound fidelity can be detected, particularly on the songs which were weak during the cinema showing. Here they sound just fine and rather powerful, making that LFE channel do some overtime work. Dialogues are warm, but slight hissing is detected during certain moments. But I suspect that is due to poor sound dubbing work that the film had during post production.

Features

The menus are rushed in design and not so thematic with the overall product. The English subtitles are once again the downside in that the songs are not subtitled, so 100% of information is not being received. But the overall box designs are very rich, and one would wish that other companies take notes. The supplements are also very poor which mostly contain EPK (electronic press kit), or promotional features. The making of is very basic, while the song promos is what you expect it to be. Interestingly the song promos look more better in quality then the main feature - Why EROS?

Conclusion

Not as good as a DEI or Ayngaran title, but certainly an improvement over many Video-Sound and WEG DVD titles. EROS are improving in terms of quality but they still have so much more to do, like presenting the film in its original aspect ratio, and taking more care in their encoding work!