Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey review: Highlights gender prejudice in marriage with a good dose of humour

Written and directed by Vipin Das, Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey starts with the introduction of a character — a Malayalam teacher (played by Aju Varghese), who wants his student-girlfriend Jaya (Darshana Rajendran) to do everything only after seeking his permission.

He even slaps her for changing their profile pic. Will this problem end if she breaks up with him? No.

And then we see a host of characters who try to control her life by dictating terms to her.

Born into a lower-middle-class family, Jaya is clueless when it comes to deciding on her own. She has no say in any important episode in her life. Even her uncle keeps intervening in her life and freely gives her his opinion.

Jaya’s parents force her into a marriage “for her own good”, with Rajesh (Basil Joseph), a middle-class young man who runs a poultry farm. He is not only short-tempered but also has many terms and conditions.

For example, Rajesh only eats idiyappam every day and he wants Jaya to eat it too. In his own words, he gives “enough freedom” to his wife and she can select anything from the two options: Idiyappam and idiyappam!

Also, he thinks that saying sorry would be enough to fix the damage caused when he slaps his wife.

Of normalised prejudices and injustice

The base of the story is the prejudices and the oppression Jaya faces before and after marriage, and how everyone around her, including her parents, adds to/perceives her struggles.

In a scene, when Jaya reveals that she is living in fear of her husband and that she could be beaten at any time for any reason, her mother says that is normal in married life.

Jaya shows the degree of injustice that is seen as “normal” in a woman’s life.

The feature ends by asking the audience about the three things a woman needs in her family life. Apparently, Rajesh doesn’t know the answer.

Genre shift spoils the show

On the downside, after an hour into the story, the realism soon shifts to a trance mode! To say it modestly, it criminally shifts to fantasy mode.

All of a sudden, it becomes a comic version of The Great Indian Kitchen. Even though the points they want to make are clear and loud, the genre shift spoils a sensitive, relevant discussion into a daydream.

This was the problem with Aishwarya Lekshmi’s Ammu (Telugu), too. Ammu and Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey have the same one-hour script and edit.

On a positive note, the characters, the events and the dialogues are easy to relate to, thanks to the writers and the actors. They look realistic and inherently relatable.

We have seen them around. This makes us feel sad, angry and happy for the characters.

There are a couple of good moments between the fantasy comic mood, like Jaya’s brother asking her if she is really happy there (husband’s house).

Punch single, punch double, punch triple.. PUNCH!!! https://t.co/YkKN96nArp

Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey, in theatres on 28th October.

— Darshana Rajendran (@darshanarajend) October 26, 2022

Basil & Darshana shine in their roles

The performance of Basil Joseph is the backbone of Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey. Here, we see a different Basil from that of his recent releases Jaane Man and Palthu Janwar.

In many places, he reminds us of Sreenivasan from Vadakku Nokki Yanthram. Almost all the comedy scenes depend on Basil and he makes this part of the movie work perfectly.

Darshana Rajendran is too good as Jaya, the struggling wife. The best part is her subtle performance, which is pretty relatable.

The whole cast was near-on perfect. Biju Kalanilayam, Kanaka, Azeez Nedumangad, Anand Manmadhan and Sudheer Paravoor bring a lot to the movie.

Cinematographer Babli Aju and music director Ankit Aju gave excellent support to Vipin Das. Songs are placed well and never break the speed.

The art director and the costume designers deserve special appreciation.

The movie gets pretty crazy after the first hour. It becomes ridiculously funny (without any vulgar or double-meaning lines).

Verdict

Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey is, by far, the funniest film I’ve seen in a long-long time. It has many laugh-out-loud moments. The best comedy of the year!