Director: Shefali Bhushan

Cast: Sugandha Garg, Siddhant Behl, Aniruta Jha, Sadhana Singh

True to its literal meaning, Jugni, a surefooted debut by Shefali Bhushan, tells us about a female firefly.

Vibhavari (Sugandha Garg), a newbie Bollywood music producer, travels to Hassanpur to locate the voice of Punjabi folk singer Bibi Saroop (Sadhana Singh). Instead, she gets captivated by her effervescent – and very talented – son named Mastana.
Here’s where Jugni begins to encapsulate the essence of its musical meaning: that of a folk-specific narrative device of an outsider’s poignant political and existential observations. Vibs shakes up Mastana in her own way; she asks him repeatedly why epic North Indian love stories always have sad endings.
She nudges him to stop catering to his admirers’ item-song needs, and return to his traditional, earthy roots instead. She accompanies him to distant authentic Mulla Shah performances, and even participates in a drunken jugalbandi with him. Though her English pop stanzas are a bit jarring amidst his throaty poetry, it also signifies the fatal cocktail of two mutually exclusive cultures.

After their passionate night together, Vibs is offended – not because they slept together, or because she has just cheated on her needy live-in boyfriend, but because Mastana panicked and stormed off next morning leaving her to navigate her way back to the village. “What? You’re offended about that?”, he asks her, astonishingly, already at her feet by now begging for forgiveness. After all, she is also his ticket out of here. Vibs closes her eyes, embarrassed at this gesture; it’s now that she probably realises the practical meaning of India’s inherent class divides. Surely, no other man has touched her feet after making love to her.

This scene pretty much defines Miss Bhushan’s pragmatic approach to ‘Jugni’. It’s no coincidence that she once worked for the ‘Beat Of India’ program, traveling to the hidden pockets of the country to record talented voices.
Importantly, she channels all her experience into a film that doesn’t stop at “sparks fly” or “they separated”. Equally engaging – and interesting – is Vibs’ return to Mumbai and her life thereafter; the way she breaks up with her boyfriend but continues to share the same flat; the way she must deal with the filmy system of underpaying unknown singers at the cost of her own reputation; the way they continue to keep in touch, in some sort of limbo, while he continues to get restless back in Punjab.

His adoring village belle, Preeto (Aniruta Jha), who has recognised his betrayal and nurses a broken heart, can’t quite smother his spirit, his destiny. His mother, who didn’t hesitate to ask Vibs for some money before she left, has words of caution for him, “Travellers don’t stop to love” – and watches as her son returns glassy-eyed after a failed stint in the city of his dreams. These are all phases that are nicely stitched together with Clinton Cerejo’s vivid tracks; even the choppy editing pattern is overlooked in favour of this thin treading of waters between an all-out musical and an epic drama.

The film, and its title, may be about Vibs and her journey, but Jugni actually belongs to Siddhant Behl’s Mastana. He epitomises the hope and bright-eyed enthusiasm of those looking for a forbidden future. He essays the authenticity and regality of a popular singer who knows he is a frog in the well. Look out for the scene in which he bids her goodbye at the station; their fingers touch for a split seconds, until he remembers where he belongs – and where she’s going.

Miss Garg, too, has come a long way since her “Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa” days, and looks set to profit from one of the finer casting decisions in recent times. Her character, Vibs, is a free spirit who has discovered the power of selfishness, and she does a good job to hit the entire scale from flaky to “matlabi” to diffident over the period of this film.

Jugni is one of the better Indian films about music, artistes and everything in between. It also provides an insight into the sacrifices, hearts and souls of the people who bring you different sounds to take you through lonely nights. A few technical issues aside, Shefali Bhushan has good reason to be proud of this little life-encompassing snapshot of time.