Pooja Dogra (Mrunal Thakur) is a Delhi-based young woman who lives with her parents in the city. Pooja has a keen interest in acting and does theatre. She also has plans to have a small business/startup of her own. Her parents, Gulshan Dogra (Rajesh Jais) and Nandita Dogra (Madhu Sachdeva) are not too happy with her being not too sure about her career choices. Pooja has also dated quite a few men in the past and that is something that bothers them as well. They wish for her to settle down in life soon. Pooja, who has been a part of a theatre group named Junoon, is acting in the play ‘Romeo and Juliet’. While Pooja plays Juliet, Romeo is essayed by Aniket Srivastava (Vikram Singh Chauhan). Aniket has been in love with Pooja and one day, as the play comes to an end, he proposes to her in front of a large audience. Pooja is taken aback by the proposal and does not know how to react. In the green room, Pooja tells Aniket that she is not in love with him and he should not have staged something like this. Aniket feels hurt by Pooja’s refusal. He heads back home and commits suicide. Pooja is not only blamed for Aniket’s suicide, she is arrested as well.
The story (Navjot Gulati and Kanishka) is very interesting and gets you invested as a viewer in no time. The screenplay (Navjot Gulati and Kanishka; additional screenplay by Niren Bhatt) is quite gripping. The film has a runtime of two hours and as a viewer, you remain consistently engaged. One cannot deny the fact that the film deals with a tricky subject. The writers, therefore, must be applauded for taking up a subject like this and dealing with it in the most sensitive manner. The inciting incident happens soon and after that, the focus of the film remains on the case.
While the screenplay is tight and gripping, a few things should have been taken care of. The film, apart from being a courtroom drama that talks about toxic masculinity and patriarchy, has been designed like a thriller. Looking at the way certain scenes have been designed, one gets the feeling that there is an attempt to get the viewers thinking as to who is right and who is wrong. However, the attempt remains a little half-baked as one gets an idea, right from the onset, that the film is trying to bring one’s attention to how women are treated in our society. That is not a bad thing at all. However, the writers should not have made an attempt to take the viewer down this lane. If they were keen to do it, it should have been done in a far more interesting manner.
The proceedings that take place in the courtroom are engaging. A speech, which Sana (Huma Qureshi) makes towards the end, is very moving. Having said that, the conclusion should have been a little more impactful. The ease with which Sana gets a person, who was very close to Aniket, to blurt out certain things, does not feel very convincing. A few more scenes could have been designed to make the courtroom proceedings a little more interesting.
Mrunal Thakur delivers a fair performance. She needs to work on her dialogue delivery. Huma Qureshi delivers an impactful performance. Vikram Singh Chauhan, making his feature film debut here, is terrific. Vijay Raaz is very good as Jatin, though one feels his character could have been a little more layered. Sunita Rajwar is very effective as the cop. Rituraj Singh leaves a mark.
The camerawork (Jishnu Bhattacharjee) is good. The production design (Mayur Sharma) comes across as authentic. The songs (Vishal Mishra) are quite good. The background score (John Steward Eduri) is impactful. The editing (Sanyukta Kaza) is crisp.
‘Pooja Meri Jaan’ is a gripping courtroom drama that aims to show a mirror to the society with regards to how it treats its women. The film is laced with several dramatic high-points and keeps you thoroughly invested as a viewer. It is an important film that deserves to be watched.