Good Luck Jerry review: Janhvi Kapoor aces the test of her most challenging role yet with this dark comedy

3/5

Jerry (Janhvi Kapoor), who is in desperate need of money, is sucked into the illicit drug trade. When she decides to go, things go wrong.

If a woman goes down the wrong path, it just means that she has a super solid and emotional reason for doing so. But what happens if the taste of success makes her become a not-so-good person, too? Janhvi Kapoor plays the titular role in the second half of Good Luck Jerry. She says, "Hum jitne dikhte hai, utne hai nahi." (I am not such a fool as I look). This shows that although things have gone awry, the young woman has learnt the tricks of business in the best way.

Good Luck Jerry is the Hindi remake of the hit Tamil film Kolamaavu Kokila, which featured Nayanthara in the lead role. In a very bizarre and unexpected situation, Jerry (Kapoor) gets into the illicit drug trade, and that too, at the very time when she is in dire need of money. In desperate times, desperate measures make her carry a pouch of drugs from one mafia to another, which she does effortlessly.

The simple story of Good Luck Jerry is cooked and served with cocktails, which finally come together in a climax as we have seen in most Priyadarshan films, namely Hera Pheri, Hungama and more.

The supporting cast of the film backs Kapoor in the best way, making her uplift her performance and how. We have seen Sidharth Sengupta show his filmmaking prowess in recent times with OTT series, namely Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein, Undekhi and more. Thus, seeing him get into this dark comedy space is no surprise.

The film starts with a lot of uncomfortable scenes with Janhvi wearing a hairnet and walking on a huge vessel filled with maida as her family is into the Momo business. Moreover, she stands and coughs while imitating her sick mother, Sarbati, played by Mita Vashisht.

Soon after, there comes another scene with Sushant Singh, the main antagonist, just doing his business in the washroom, and we are stuck in that scene for a few seconds, enough to leave us with discomfort and unexplainable sounds.

I was not ready for what I signed up for, yet I went with the flow only to enjoy the film to the fullest. Although it's an OTT release, the first half does get interesting and sets up an amazing pace with a lot of incidents happening one after the other.

However, the second half takes a turn, with one whole day taking the rest of the runtime. The new mission is dangerous and not even an experienced drug trader can take it up. However, Jerry is thrust into the challenge, and the film enters the hotch-potch Priyadarshan mode, which dampens the fun it was set to.

Meanwhile, even the editing by Prakash Chandra Sahoo and Zubin Sheikh gets erratic and slightly haywire in the last hour of the film. However, we cannot take away the fact that Good Luck Jerry passes with flying colours because the intention is in the right place.

The film doesn't have any dull moments as such with the sequences created, which have fun, action, thrill, everything blended well.

Pankaj Matta, who penned the screenplay, envisioned the sequence by changing the track from a Tamil Nadu set up to a Bihari living her life in Punjab. The film shows the menacing drug abuse happening in the state and how people get drawn into it in some other way.

When it comes to performances, Janhvi Kapoor shines in the film throughout. Being in a man's world and succeeding in it means she not only faces the male gaze but also stiff competition. The actor, although her accent gets affected in a few scenes, delivers her best.

To support her in the most amazing way are multiple actors, namely Deepak Dobriyal as Rinku, Mita Vashisht as Sarbati, Neeraj Sood as Anil, Sushant Singh as Daler, Sahil Mehta as Jigar, Jaswant Singh Dalal as Timmy and others.

Although Kapoor is almost in every frame of the film, the supporting cast just takes the scenes up a notch with their incredible dialogue delivery and screen presence. There's a sequence in which the characters play dumb charades because the drug lord believes that his place is bugged. In just no time, Dobriyal steals the show, and that's all we can easily expect from an actor of his calibre.

Good Luck Jerry has yet another plus point, which is the music. Parag Chhabra has composed the songs for the film, which are quirky and fun to hear. It gels well with the scenes, and the tempo makes the sequences look better.

After a very long time, I must say that OTT has brought an entertaining film to watch and that too, backed by Aanand L. Rai, whose forte is bringing stories from the heartland of India.

Good Luck Jerry is yet another film in Janhvi Kapoor's filmography after Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, that she can shoulder a solo-lead film and perform better with an amazing supporting cast.