Jogi movie review: Bollywood melodrama of Diljit Dosanjh’s film undercuts the tragedy of 1984 riots

A Jat policeman (Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub) and a Muslim man of faith are old friends who help Jogi in this deepest hour of crisis. It is the strongest strand in the story, a once-familiar inter-faith triage is used to reference the India of that time. When old neighbours turned upon each other, it was clear that the country would never be the same again. An abortive romance, between Jogi and a girl who is the sister of another old friend (Hiten Tejwani), ends in an untimely death. Those cracks were never papered over, and the enmity is now in the open, baying for blood.

It is not that we can ever forget those days, whose consequences we are still living with. But there does need to be a greater awareness and sensitivity when filmmakers touch upon the still-warm embers of those memories. In the way ‘Jogi’ uses Bollywoodian melodrama as its chief operating instrument, it serves only to undercut the tragedy, making it less than it was.

Jogi movie cast: Diljit Dosanjh, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Hiten Tejwani, Kumud Mishra, Amyra Dastur
Jogi movie director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Jogi movie rating: 1.5 stars