Justice, Equality, Freedom. When these three words echo in the movie Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey, you know it hit the right chords.
Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey is a movie I’ve been wanting to watch since it came out. But unfortunately I couldn't watch it because it was playing on the weekdays in the theater near me. December 22nd it was released on the OTT platform (the best thing to happen due to Covid are these movies coming to our homes!) and we jumped as a family to watch it. The movie’s trailers itself were intriguing so we were hooked from the first second.
Basil Joseph is a family favorite. He has proved himself well worth as a director and actor, besides our son’s favorite Aju Varghese was also playing Darshana Rajendran’s love interest, so we weren’t going to miss this for the world!
I absolutely love it when Aju Varghese dons a serious role. “Helen” is a personal favorite! And now this one’s too.
As a teacher with sense and secular thinking we fall in love with the character when he stands up for women equality and freedom. And then like most of the men we see in real life, he condones all these behaviors in his personal life as Jaya’s boyfriend. The boyfriend logging into her facebook account and blocking the profiles of guys, forbidding her from being friends with boys, arguing with her over her choice of clothes and slyly asking why her phone’s busy at night are all just too eerily familiar! I loved it that the makers didn’t try to portray this character as a perfect man because that would have become too cheesy and everyone would easily root for him and not Rajesh (Basil Joseph).
Aju Varghese has carved a niche for himself in roles that don’t just provide comic relief but are actually important to the story. He has flawlessly gotten into the roles that were portrayed by yesteryear actors Innocent, Jagathy, Nedumudi Venu et al. This definitely isn’t an easy feat because as audiences we have the characters played by these great actors etched in our minds!
Basil Joseph has shouldered this movie and how! The layers in his character, peeling one at a time, he has acted brilliantly! The writers Vipin Das and Nashid Mohamed have played with this character perfectly. The way he slowly builds up to being an abusive husband is beautiful. Rajesh’s character is a common one we see not only in Kerala, but India as a whole, where a boy is raised under the “Raja Beta Syndrome”. In this syndrome, even the women of the house advocate and push forward patriarchy and unknowingly raise a chauvinist. He is raised to believe he is the supreme man of the household and is always right! With this realization hitting him, he blatantly refuses to believe his partner is his equal and turns abusive the moment his partner has an opinion or doesn’t “listen” to him. This is not just Rajesh’s fault. It is the fault of the mother and the society that raised him. This is why the movie has shown Jaya’s house too, where her brother and she are raised under the same pretext. Not being sent to school excursions was so touching to me personally because I wasn’t sent to my 10th and 12th grade excursions only because I’m a girl! This shows that the story of Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey is so close to reality.
I love it that this was a family movie because it is so important for our children and the youth of this generation to watch and understand this. I loved “The Great Indian Kitchen” but was sad that I couldn't show it to my child. Our children need to see such movies that drive a message that men are neither above nor below women, but equal.
This is the right idea of feminism that should be imbibed in our culture. I neither support hating men as a whole nor condoning atrocities on women. The true idea of feminism that should be driven to our daughters and sons is that men and women are “equal” and Jaya “Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey” does just that.
Darshan Rajendran played the role of Jaya with ease. She is an impeccable actor who molds herself so beautifully into roles that they never stand out as her but the character of the movie. I honestly had goosebumps when she beat Rajesh to a pulp, but what the movie actually tries to say is what world are we living in if a girl needs to learn Karate and protect herself to keep her safe! Towards the climax I actually feared the movie is going to end with a clichéd ending where she forgives her husband for everything. But the movie surpassed my expectations and ended with a bang and Jaya walking off like a boss!
Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey is a movie that drives an extremely important message laced in humor.
I would like to mention that the one who walked away with this movie is Kudassanad Kanakam (Rajesh’s mother)! Her character portrayal and comic timing is simply out of the world! So is actor Azees Nedumangad who provides brilliant comic relief!
I commend actors like Basil Joseph and Aju Varghese promoting such portrayal of strong women. I remember watching a short film/advertisement in the same lines by these actors. This is the right way to educate the huge youth following that they have!
I congratulate the entire cast and crew for such a brilliant movie.