We haven’t seen something genuinely novel in the congested web space in a while. There were few times during the slightly longer than 2 hour movie when we believed we could foresee what would happen, which was a welcome break from the type of content we had previously seen a lot of. For any piece of content today, that is an exceptional achievement. Nevertheless, Jalsa is not a movie that aims to surprise its viewers despite this quality. It is a movie that is intended to get people to think, and it does so without posing any queries. What is the significance of truth, the viewer is left to wonder while the film’s events take place?
Jalsa Plot Summary What Is The Film About?
The film tells the narrative of two women: Rukhsana, her cook, who is portrayed by Shefali Shah, and Maya Menon, a prominent journalist who is portrayed by Vidya Balan. Maya resides with her mother and her physically disabled son. Rukhsana looks after him, and he loves her dearly. She is the mother of a son and a daughter. The girl is a teenager, but the son is roughly Maya’s son’s age. Jalsa depicts Maya concluding a fruitful interview and departing for home after a toast with her boss. She strikes a girl who unexpectedly crossed in front of her car as she travels. She pauses briefly, considering whether or not to assist the girl, but ultimately chooses to continue driving. We are aware that the girl is Rukhsana’s child.
Rukhsana arrives at the hospital the following day clearly upset by what happened the night before. She thought her daughter was at home to study, but it turns out that she was out with her boyfriend at three in the morning when this accident happened. She tells Maya about it and asks for her assistance in obtaining justice for her daughter. Maya transfers Rukhsana’s daughter to a nicer hospital with a private room now that she has put two and two together.
These incidents, which make up the first 30 minutes of the movie, are in our opinion the most distressing. Because the essential meat of the story is what happens next. Three characters come into play as Maya struggles with her guilt: a cop who is hell-bent on conducting a shoddy investigation; a rookie reporter who wants to follow this story; and a money offer made to Rukhsana and her family, though it is not made clear who made it until the last few minutes of the movie.
The reporter, Rohini, needs money in order to find a good location to live. She continues to investigate the accident involving Rukhsana’s daughter in the interim. It doesn’t take her long to identify the perpetrator. When she goes to the police and informs them that she has seen the CCTV film, the officer admits that the camera captured him accepting a bribe and another officer acting badly by getting into a physical altercation with a bystander. He is ready to retire and his daughter is also getting married, therefore he cannot take a chance on the probe because it will hurt him. That’s why he and the other cop bargained for a payment to the victim’s family with the man whose banner ultimately covered the CCTV camera. Hearing all of this further demoralises Rohini, who is already struggling with the truth she is aware of.
At this moment, the spectator begins to feel uneasy and wonders if the truth should be kept hidden forever. The lie is proving to be financially advantageous to Rukhsana’s family while preserving the reputation of the inspector’s family and allowing Maya, who is otherwise a highly honourable journalist, to maintain her work and her family. Despite the fact that she withheld her genuine motivations, we can assume that she has atoned for her actions by dealing with the fallout. But here, we can’t but but wonder. If she hadn’t been the one to hit Rukhsana’s daughter, would she have behaved the same way? If so, then her actions were only remorse that was pretended to be kindness and mixed with some classism.
Jalsa Ending Explained- Does The World Find Out Maya s Truth?
By the movie’s conclusion, Maya has accepted her guilt and is prepared to publicly admit that she was Rukhsana’s bad guy. On the other side, Rukhsana feels totally deceived after learning that Maya is the driver from her daughter’s lover. She fears the actual reason her daughter is at such a posh hospital because she believes the pay-out has come from her. The family members are delighted to meet Rukhsana when she arrives at Maya’s home. The grandmother tells her to finish cooking before talking to Maya despite her request to do so. After finishing her task, Rukhsanna sits down dejectedly. The grandma advises her to cheer up because they have done so much for her and that a minor argument is understandable. When the giver makes the recipient agree to a particular conduct, this is when the classism of generosity is most obvious. When Rukhsana realises this, she requests to take the kid to the beach.
When Maya gets a call from her mother in another scene, Rohini has helped her videotape her confession. She informs her that Rukhsana has taken her son to the beach and left a large sum of money at the house. Maya notices this and rushes to them after being informed of what might have happened. She is currently stuck in traffic because of the same individuals who made it so simple for her to conceal her crime. Even though we now wonder if it would have been preferable to conceal the truth, there seems to be a cost associated with doing so.
When Maya arrives to the beach, she discovers Rukhsana seated next to her and her son in good health. This concludes Jalsa.
Conclusion
Let’s pretend for a moment that Maya had told the truth right away. She probably wouldn’t have spent much time in jail because she was wealthy, and even if she had, it wouldn’t have lasted long. The worst-case situation would have been a serious setback to her career. As she herself notes, her family was financially stable, so the impact would only be little.
The marriage of the cop who accepted the bribe would probably have been called off, and he would have been suspended. Let’s imagine that Maya would have continued to cover the cost of Rukhsana’s daughter’s care, but there would be no possibility of them obtaining the additional funds from the pay-out. The benefits of the lie thus surpass those of the truth once all deductions have been made. But is everything ever that easy? Let’s not forget that Maya had abandoned the hurt girl to perish on the road. Rukhsana likely intended to communicate this worry when she carried Maya’s boy to the beach: the uncertainty of not knowing what would happen to their child. It was only by sheer luck that she survived.
From a different angle, none of the characters in this situation might be considered intrinsically bad. Maya deliberated before deciding to be honest. Even though the police inspectors were collecting little bribes, they tried to find a solution that would benefit everyone, and Rukhsana was willing to compromise on justice in order to consider the big picture and accept money. The characters weren’t bad; they were just troubled and made ethically dubious decisions, which we accepted, believing that everything would turn out okay in the end.
Shefali Shah’s eyes, which perform the most of the acting in the movie, ought to have their own career when it comes to the cast and characters of Jalsa. Both Vidya Balan and the rest of the cast delivered as expected. Manav Kaul is carving himself a career out of appearing in cameo roles as the ex-boyfriend or ex-husband. When we realise how contagious his charm is, this doesn’t even come close to pleasing us.
Jalsa unquestionably merits greater attention and consideration. This being the case, Jalsa is a theatrics-free film that subtly adheres to realism and provokes thought without overwhelming the audience. And it merits everyone’s attention.
Suresh Triveni is the director of the 2022 Indian drama thriller film Jalsa.
