‘Jubilee’ (Part 1) Prime Video Series Review - The Golden Age of Indian Cinema

When the series starts, it gives us the feel of the black-and-white Indian cinema era. Srikant Roy is introduced as a wealthy man who has given many hits along with being the owner of Roy Talkies, a successful studio. He studied in Germany and takes a passion for making films. His wife Sumitra Kumari is a leading actress and also an equal owner of the Roy Talkies. Their marriage is not a good one and they both can be seen indulging in other people. The actress is lately in talks because of her affair with Jamshed Khan. On the other hand, Srikant Roy flirts and sleeps with married as well as single women.

For his next film Sunghursh, Srikant Roy is searching for the actor who’ll play the role of Madan Kumar. It has been two months since the movie was announced and till now no names have been finalized. Roy has a vision about who will play the role of Madan Kumar and because of this, the casting is being delayed. Sumita Kumari is locked for playing the role of the actress with the only obstruction being who will be playing the part of Madan Kumar.

Aparshakti Khurana is seen as playing errand boy for Roy. He is his most trusted servant and is allotted duties that no one else can be trusted with. Being the closest to Roy, he knows everything about their marital relationship and every news related to Roy Talkies. Upon learning about the affair between Jamshed and Sumitra, Binod is sent to bring both Sumitra and Jamshed back to Bombay. Jamdesh was almost finalized for the role of Madan Kumar by Srikant Roy. Despite knowing about the affair going on between his wife and Jamshed, he was willing to take him in the film. There’s a line Roy said in the first episode of the series stating that if he has to select one between his marriage and studio, it’ll be the studio.

Upon reaching Lucknow where both Sumitra and Jamshed were, things didn’t go as they were planned. Binod tries to do everything still, the things were not in the favor of Roy Talkies. While he was on the train to Lucknow, Binod came across Jay Khanna whose family had Khanna Studios in Karachi. The man was also going to meet Jamshed to make him work in his company. 

In Lucknow, we’re introduced to Niloufer (played by Wamiqa) who used to work as a dancer and singer. Her introductory scene is magnificent, the way she’s dancing to the classical songs wearing a green Anarkali suit made me remember how Madhuri danced to "Maar Dala" song in Devdas. She also wore a green Anarkali suit in that song. Just like Madhuri’s eye talk with her dance moves, Wamiqa tried to do the same however couldn’t woo us the way Madhuri did.

After Binod gave his unexpected audition to Roy Sahab, he got cast as Madan Kumar despite the opposition from everyone including Sumitra and Walia (the investor). The company was in huge debt and placed all its bets on Madan Kumar. People mainly weren’t able to accept Binod as he was a servant and this sudden change of position was hard to accept. What happened in Lucknow didn’t stay there and Binod was haunted by Jamshed. I initially thought that the character would lose his mind and prove to be a failure, but the series took an interesting turn.

Many historic events have been added to the series like the India-Pakistan partition, the state of the refugee camps, and how women at that time were being forced into prostitution. People lost their livelihoods and jumped at every opportunity they got. Families like the Khanna’s who had a stable source of income went through a lot of trauma. Many illegal things started at that time and the crime rates also shot up. There were many riots like those in Punjab and Bengal. Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous lines “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”  The 1950 set that has been used reminds us how beautiful the buildings used to be at that time with all those big chandeliers. 

Earlier, when the songs were shot, the actors used to stay still, and in their vicinity, the music team would be singing the song live. The idea behind the introduction of playback singing was then introduced which allowed the actors to move while the song was being played and also to shoot the scenes beautifully. This thing has also been included in the series when Roy tried to being this technology to Roy Talkies. The post-partition period was a golden era for Bollywood to shine, and the same is depicted in the series. 

Vikramaditya Motwane’s Jubilee proves to be excellent in holding the audience's attention. The series is primarily about Roy Talkies and its journey through the highs and the lows. Aparshakti Khurana’s character of Madan Kumar might be his most potent role date till now. The power his character carries is huge, and the way Aparshakti molded himself into Madan is wonderful. The actor delivered a powerful performance. 

Sidhant Gupta as Jay Khanna played the part of an aspiring filmmaker whose dreams were nearly crushed due to the India-Pakistan separation of 1947. Many things are expected from both Siddhant Gupta and Aparshakti Khurana in the second part. 

Next to them, Wamiqa Gabbi’s character feels incomplete now. Playing the part of Niloufer Qureshi, she is a woman who knows what one has to do to make it top of the ladder, for this she can also compromise her integrity. To get into the industry, her character slept with an investor and used him to fulfill her dreams (a thing that we often hear about the film industry). Niloufer Qureshi has a lot to do in part 2 and the initial five episodes served as just an introduction to her character. Arun Govil is seen playing the role of Jay Khanna’s father and it was good to watch him back on-screen. There’s also a scene in the fifth episode of the series where Amit Trivedi is acting in his song. 

The scene which is stuck in my mind is when Madan Kumar aka Binod helps Jay Khanna learn the art of filmmaking. He introduces him to various things at the Roy Talkies and through this, the boy got new doors of opportunity open. The way several characters say “Madan Kumar behnchod” in the same tone will make the audience laugh. They’re all seen him abusing by saying the same line which is sort of amusing. 

After I finished watching all five episodes of the show, with each being an hour long I can not wait for the next five to arrive which’ll release on Amazon Prime Video on April 14, 2023. This short gap between both parts will work in the favor of the series as the audience will like to watch the next episodes, and with a small gap, the interest and audience base will be maintained. 

Final Score – [8/10]
Reviewed by - Riya Singh
Follow @_riyasinghhh_ on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times