Weekend Watch: 'Jawaani Jaaneman' and 'Maska'

I live alone in New York City, and after two weeks of self-isolating, I moved back in with my parents (who also live in NYC), because I figured I needed an audience for my panic attacks. What happens when an Indian family is trapped at home over the weekend? Why, you watch some Bollywood movies of course! In one day, we powered through Jawaani Jaaneman and then the new movie Maska on Netflix, and I am here to tell you that these movies are both fluffy comedies and excellent pandemic viewing when you just need to get away from it all. Let’s get into it.

Jawaani Jaaneman:

Set in London, Saif Ali Khan plays Jaswinder “Jazz” (of course) Singh, a 40-year-old playboy who works as a property broker by day and a womanising partier by night. You know the type - no commitments, no drama, just have fun, and keep up the bachelor bacchanal. Fifteen minutes into the movie, he meets Tia (Alaya Furniturewala) at a club, a beautiful 21-year-old, just his type, who says she wants to talk to him. He invites her over to his pad for what he assumes will be a fun night. Welp. Turns out he is her biological dad. This movie just took a whole new turn. Oh and also, turns out Tia’s pregnant - so Jazz is on the verge of being a grandad as well. Oops.

Saif Ali Khan, Alaya Furniturewala & Tabu are gold in Jawaani Jaaneman

While the beginning offers up a twist, nothing subsequently happens in this movie that you won’t be able to predict from a mile away. Written by Hussain and Abbas Dalal, and directed by Nitin Kakkar, the jokes are basic, the plot is standard. Though there’s some great physical comedy from Saif as he really hams up the desperate man child aspect of his character - it’s reminiscent of his role in Cocktail, except now he’s actually in on the joke. The greatest effect watching this movie has had on me is that I am now humming the ‘Jawaani Janeman’ song from 1982’s Namak Halaal on a non-stop loop.

Which is why this is a cozy Corona watch. You don’t need surprises right now, you need some typical Bollywood shenanigans. Jazz’s family comprises a fun group of Punjabi characters, including the dear Farida Jalal as the stalwart matriarch. There are some business deals, there are fun misunderstandings, there are the inevitable conflicts that will get resolved in a syrupy sweet fashion. And there’s eventually a cameo from Tabu, as Tia’s hippie mom who got knocked up by Jazz in Amsterdam all those years ago and has been living her best single mom life ever since. Is she a total hippie stereotype? Natch. But that’s the kind of DGAF calm lifestyle we all need to be embracing right now. 

Rating on a normal day: ★★
Rating during quarantine: ★★★½

“Reminiscent of Saif’s role in Cocktail, except now he’s actually in on the joke”

Maska:

I’ll confess, the only reason I started this movie when it showed up on my Netflix home page is because the trailer featured a mouthwatering montage of bun maska being prepared. For those who don’t know, this is a speciality commonly found in Irani coffee shops in India, where a delicious bread roll is slathered with butter, and you gobble the treat up before your arteries shut down. And that’s the best way to describe this movie. It’s a sweet treat that you’ll gobble up in a few bites, and you might not remember much of it after, but you’ll sure have enjoyed the experience.

Set in Mumbai, it’s the story of Rumi (Prit Kamani), a Parsi boy who lives with his widowed mother, Diana (the magnificent Manisha Koirala), who dreams that her son will take over the family’s Irani cafe that was established in 1920 by his great-grandfather. But like any young Mumbai man, Rumi has other ideas - he wants to be an actor. 

Maska is an adorable watch

Written and directed by Neeraj Udhwani, this is an incredibly adorable movie that has some high stakes but mostly serves as a love letter to Mumbai in general and the Parsi community in particular. It’s a story about family, tradition, following your dreams but also knowing how to recognise the right dream in the first place, and also acknowledging the people around you and the different lives they might lead. In our current time, we’ve all been forced to have a little empathy and think about how our actions could have a ripple effect on the members of our immediate and wider community. So watch Maska and enjoy the Parsi accents, the hilarity of the Bollywood auditioning process, the obligatory girlfriend drama (there are some sex scenes - nothing explicit, but enough to still make you cringe when you’re watching with your brown parents), and the inevitable happy ending. And most importantly, ensure you have some bread rolls and butter in the pantry, because you are going to be craving some bun maska like nobody’s business by the time you are through.

Rating on a normal day or a pandemic day: ★★★½

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