Spoilers ahead…
The film is Shahid’s show. It is one of his finest performances. He underplays every moment and adds a few more shades to the character than the screenplay does.
Gowtam Tinnanuri has remade his Nani-starrer Jersey with Shahid Kapoor. The story is about a 36-year-old former cricketer named Arjun Talwar (that’s the Shahid character), who was once “the best batsman of his time”, which was the mid-1980s. He lives with his wife Vidya (Mrunal Thakur) and son, and things are not going well in the household. He has been sacked from the government job he took up after deciding to give up cricket. The wife is the sole provider, and Arjun sits around at home, smoking and drinking beer. Is he feeling sorry for himself? Partly yes. But he is also one of those people who have given up their great passion and talent and settled for less. We hear that the only time he was really happy was when he was playing cricket. What about his wife, then? Does she not give him “real happiness”? Does he not share his feelings with her? Theirs is a love marriage, after all. Is there any love left in this marriage now?
You won’t find incisive, convincing answers to these questions because Jersey is content to exist in broad strokes. To give you an analogy, take the charity match where Arjun plays for the first time after his self-imposed retirement. You’d think he’d be a bit rusty after 10 years – but no. Every ball is hit for a four or a six. It’s a relief when subsequent matches show him taking the odd single. Jersey is like Arjun. Every scene gets its points across in the form of a four or a six, instead of working harder and making singles – that is, by going step by step instead of leaps and bounds.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/hindi/movie/review/jersey/
And you can watch the video review here:
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Sri Prabhuram
April 22, 2022
Nice review BR. However, I find these types of remakes to be incredibly pointless. why would I watch the remake when it’s the same writer and director as the original, especially in this age with OTT and digital platforms?
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Ari
April 22, 2022
Can’t find a review for the Telugu version. Did you watch the Telugu version BR, and if so, did you have any thoughts on how the Hindi remake compared to the original?
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Vishal Yogin
April 22, 2022
If I remember right, you were away for some film festival overseas when the Telugu original was released. I loved that one, not sure if this would be a good watch when it’s a replica.
Speaking of replicas, I loved both 96 and it’s remake jaanu ! As well as arjun reddy and kabir singh 🙂
And it seems a hindi remake of 96 is on the way….
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Anu Warrier
April 23, 2022
I find Shahid an extremely competent and ‘warm’ actor. He makes you root for him, even if some of his films are not my cup of tea. I have heard very good things about the original film and yet have never watched it. I’m wondering whether I have the patience to sit through a frame-by-frame remake, however, to watch both.
Ah, well, some time later, I guess, when the project-from-hell finally draws to a close…
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Sri Prabhuram
January 29, 2024
Well, I didn’t expect this from Gowtham. Hopefully, the movie becomes more than what the tagline implies. (And Anirudh has a project that does not have a big star.)
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2q5PKdyH-R/?igsh=MXE5ODN2Z2ltMnMzMw==
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