Review of Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa

Introduction

While the plot idea of the film has a nice and sharp edge to it, the way it has been handled is far too messy and unconvincing. This could have been a rather intelligent romance/comedy film but instead the director treats us like unintelligent cretins and the end result is a weak screenplay that is poorly directed.

Performances in this film are very poor. The majority of the cast disappoints, from over the top Johnny Lever who looks and talks stupid to Abhishek Bachchan who just doesn`t have the timing needed to get laughs from the audience. He really could do with some improving, but as it is his first attempt at comedy one could forgive him in a hopeless way.

The new actress from south Indian cinema, Kirti Reddy, is also very bad and lacks the charisma needed for the audiences to support or even feel for her. Also her speech delivery is very disturbing to the ear. The only actors who pulled it of in this film are Kadar Khan, Paresh Rawal and Himani Shivpuri with some fine comic scenes. Sanjay Suri, in a very limited role, does his best. One other plus point in this film is the excellent music score from Ismail Darbar, who really displays some fine tunes.

However it can be said that the background score is a little disappointing and seems to suffer from an A.R. Rahman hangover. I`m sure background composer Ranjit Barot could have done better then this as he did for the Tamil film V.I.P (1998). The film does fall flat on its face and its rather a shame really as the film did have the potential to have become an all time classic...

Video

The DVD is presented in a widescreen picture ratio of 1.85:1 cropped from its original aspect ratio of 2.66:1. This present some cropping problems on this DVD as a percentage of side frames are missing and in some scenes this is apparent to the eye. It would have been great if Video-Sound can do their future films in its original aspect ratio, with an anamorphic transfer, so that the director`s vision is originally intact and that the picture quality would be increased by around 33%.

The picture quality is a mixed bag and really is not quality impressive. There are small signs of compressed artefacts in the form of pixels brakes up, which are light. Grain is non-existent, so is wear and tear as the picture is brand new and has been transferred from a good source.

The picture has some good sharpness detail which displays information that makes viewing clear and understandable. There are some slight shimmering and moiré effects present on this disc but they won`t bother you that much and rarely create any problems with viewing. The colour fidelity is also good, while displaying certain vibrancy and saturation. But some scenes did have some moments of red hues that could have been avoided.

Dark and contrast details were just average, and help with the overall visuals that the film is presented on this DVD. Blacks has some shades of which reveals extra information.

Audio

The sound on this disc is in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is very active on all channels, creating a presence of a soundfield that immediately fills your room when the film begins. The surround channels are constantly working along with the visuals, and helps with viewing. The dialogues are very clear while the majority of the soundtrack is never distorted, thus not dissatisfying you as done by past products from Video-Sound. The only complaints is that there is one second of a sound drop out that was annoying, while during one reel change low hissing noises was detected.

Features

The DVD also includes the option of having English subtitles, which will benefit many films fans who always wanted to understand fully what was being said but had weak knowledge of the lingo. The dialogues and songs have been well subtitled and won`t serve up any complaints. The menus are lazy and are in the form of a still with the soundtrack of the film being looped. They are very uninspiring but are of easy navigation.

Conclusion

An average DVD that could have improved in the picture department. Still it is an improvement on Video-Sound`s past DVD products like Arzoo (1998), Jamam Samjhaa Karo (1998) & Biwi No 1 (1999).