Jango Movie Review: A forgettable time-loop film

As the final word on this review, for a film that is marketed as India's first time-loop film, Jango does... Oh, wait. It appears that we are in a time-loop, and humour me, for I’m reviewing a bad time-loop film and I must keep myself amused, and so, let me continue. For a film that is marketed as India’s first time-loop film, Jango is surprisingly tepid and reiterates that it isn’t a genre that makes a film, it’s what you put into it.

Let’s move forward to the beginning. The way the story is set up is rather intriguing. A meteor is about to strike our planet, specifically Chennai on the midnight of October 2. The story follows Gautham (Satheesh Kumar), a surgeon (who is often called 'the best surgeon in Chennai') trying his best to mend things with his separated wife, Nisha (Mirnalini Ravi), a television journalist. Unfortunately, at midnight on October 2, he finds himself right below the mid-air meteor explosion, and gets knocked out. However, he wakes up to realise that he is stuck in a time loop, forced to relive that particular day over and over.

Director: Mano Karthikeyan

Cast: Satheesh Kumar, Mirnalini, Karunakaran, Hareesh Peradi

In such films, it’s really the events and how unique and entertaining they are, that make or break it. There is an attempt to do this in Jango. Gautham begins with an everyday chat with his house-help (played by Deepa Shankar, who might be playing her character in Doctor here — there is even a reference to it). It’s all downhill from here though. Almost everything that happens on Day 0 of the loop is meant to be funny, except they are not. As the iterations begin, you get newer attempts at jokes, but they don’t work either.

This particular day keeps turning unsettlingly bizarre. The patient who Gautham operates on dies mysteriously; his estranged wife conducts a TV interview of him; and to top it all, she gets murdered as well. From out of nowhere, this film turns into a whodunit. There’s even an 'otherworldly' element, and for a film that suffers in trying to get the basics right, it goes for too much.

The poor writing is on display everywhere. Take the scene that tells us why the couple broke up in the first place. It’s all so hurried that you barely register the details, and there’s really no reason for why Gautham seems so… robotic. Debutant actor Satheesh looks the part, but that's it really. Even in places where he doesn’t have to be stoic, he is. All the poor lip sync in this film doesn’t help either. Another example of bad writing is how predictable the identity of the antagonist is. My biggest surprise was how this film, with as many unusual ideas, is yet so unsurprising.

As the final word on this review… wait, you know it already.