Alia Bhatt channelises Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘angry young man’ in Vasan Bala’s Jigra, an emotional gut punch that’s fierce yet tender. The story that celebrates sibling bonds, resilience, and the undying human spirit explores the lengths one woman will go to rescue her younger brother from the vice grip of injustice.

The story opens with a glimpse of young Satya and her brother Ankur, bonding as they ascend the staircase of their home. This tender moment quickly shifts to tragedy as their father’s suicide leaves them orphaned, shattering their childhood in a blink. The narrative jumps forward, revealing the siblings’ strained lives under the roof of a distant, affluent uncle, where Satya’s position is more akin to domestic staff than family member.

Ankur, now a promising young engineer, leaves for a fictional country, Hanshi Dao, along with his cousin, to pitch a business idea, underwritten by their uncle. There, he is framed in a drug scandal orchestrated by his cousin and finds himself trapped under Hanshi Dao’s stern legal system, which enforces capital punishment for drug offences. Satya then embarks on a harrowing journey to rescue her brother, in a foreign land where mercy is scarce and time is not on her side.

As the story unfolds, Satya assembles an unlikely team — Muthu (Rahul Ravindran), a stoic ally, and Mr Bhatia (Manoj Pahwa), a warm-hearted friend, in Hanshi Dao. Together, they embark on an unlikely mission to free Ankur, challenging the powerful forces governing Hanshi Dao’s brutal prison system.

Comparisons with Mahesh Bhatt’s Gumrah — Bhatt has been acknowledged in the opening credits — are inevitable. In the 1993 actioner, also produced by the Dharma Productions banner, Sridevi’s character was similarly implicated for a drug offence in Singapore and found a helping hand in Sanjay Dutt’s Jaggu who helps her break out of prison.

And recently, Abhinay Deo’s thriller Savi featured Divya Khossla as a wife who’d go to any lengths to get her husband out of prison.

What draws you into Vasan Bala’s prison break thriller is Alia. She is the beating heart of Jigra. Satya is not the archetypal Bollywood action hero but is deeply grounded in human desperation, evoking an instinctive protectiveness for her brother that is universally relatable. Her transformation into an unlikely yet convincing woman of action, referred to as a ‘Bachchan’ figure in the film, pays homage to Bollywood’s legacy of the larger-than-life hero.

Alia’s Satya informs us early on that she’s trained in karate as she fights her adversaries in bare-knuckle brawls. She also hurtles through streets in a high-speed truck chase, scales walls using rappelling gear, and stands her ground against hordes of armed guards and prisoners.

After his breakout performance in Netflix's The Archies, Vedang Raina proves his mettle in Jigra. As Satya's brother Ankur, he brings out the quiet despair of an innocent young man on death row. In the few scenes they appear together, Raina shares a warm chemistry with Alia.

Unlike his usual repertoire of roles, where Manoj Pahwa is merely used for comic relief, his Mr Bhatia is imbued with emotional depth, making him an indispensable part of the story. Rahul Ravindran’s Muthu, calm and stoic, provides a counterbalance to Satya’s intensity, grounding the film’s high-octane scenes with his quiet strength.

The film’s pacing sometimes suffers as the characters take their time devising plans, which undercuts the sense of urgency crucial to a story like this. But Vasan Bala is self-aware. When Bhatia jokes about the complexity of their plan, Muthu quips, “Yeh masala movie thodi hai, yeh complicated hai.”

Achint Thakkar’s score plays a key role in creating an immersive experience, underscoring scenes of high tension with a subtle soundscape. Using a muted colour palette, cinematographer Swapnil S. Sonawane effectively depicts Satya’s mindscape in an alien land where danger lurks at every corner.

And how could any Vasan Bala film (think Monica, O My Darling and Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota) be complete without nods to some cinema legends. Songs from Zanjeer constantly star in Bhatia’s playlist. And who’d have imagined that the Hanshi Dao prison houses two inmates named Wong Kar Wai and Kim Ki-duk!