And that’s how you make a remake. This is what it means to adapt a script according to the audience, the actors, and the sensibilities of a different time. The original source material for “Good Luck Jerry” is “CoCo Kokila,” a 2018 Tamil language film starring Nayanthara. But Jahnvi Kapoor’s film is good enough that there is absolutely no need to compare it to the original. It is a very clever satire on society’s understanding of the “helpless woman” and how she is ultimately in charge of her own destiny. However, in this regard, we have a bone to pick with the makers— probably the only one. Jahnvi Kapoor, while she looks suitably vulnerable and innocent, does not look like a part of her on-screen family. We understand the reason for casting her and applaud the actress’s choice of films, but there is a certain discretion that directors must exercise with their casting choices. Let it be a “Dil Dhadakne Do” or a “Jug Jug Jeeyo,” the cast playing the characters looked like they could actually be a family. But Jahnvi Kapoor just looks out of place in the setting. That being said, let’s take a look at how this story plays out.
How Does Jerry Become A Drug Mule?
“Good Luck Jerry” doesn’t even take a minute to hook you in. It starts with Jerry’s mother, Sarbati, picking up the momos that have fallen down. She makes her way to the front of her house, but the momos fall down again. This time, however, there are people around, and Sarbati says that ‘She is not going to cheat her customers for some extra money, so she isn’t going to feed them the contaminated momos.’ Just then, her daughter Jerry walks in. In the discussion that follows, we come to know that Jerry works in a massage parlor, and her mother does not approve of that job. When their neighbor, Anil, who likes Sarbati, tries to come to her defense, she says that she won’t compromise on her morals. She also mentions that chicken momos cost Rs 4 extra, but she still makes vegetable ones because she is a morally upright woman. It’s a funny moment and a funny dialogue that reveals the sketchy nature of Jerry’s entire family. At that moment, Jerry remarks that as a woman, she understands when to talk, when to stay silent, when to smile, and when to turn away. In short, she is capable of navigating her way through her work. This is a very important line and is relevant later in the story. We see Jerry’s daily life as anything but exemplary. She works in the massage parlor so that she can make enough money to afford a better life. There are certain hiccups, like sketchy clients and unwanted advances from a boy, Rinku, but it is passed off in light-hearted fun.
As the story progresses, Jerry’s mother is diagnosed with lung cancer, and they need close to Rs 3 million for her treatment. The real story starts when, one fine day, Jerry accidentally helps the police nab a drug mule. As soon as he is taken away, the people with him who were hiding, grab Cherry, Jerry’s sister, and tell her to get the package if she wants her sister to be safe. They have hidden the packet in the men’s washroom and tell her to bring it. With a fair share of hiccups, she does so. The man in charge, Timmy, is smitten by her. When the sisters are going back, Cherry shows Jerry that she has picked up the wallet of one of the boys, Jigar. It has a lot of money, and Jerry is forced to consider her morals for once, in the face of their increasing financial difficulties.
The next day, as her mother prepares to get her photograph taken for her funeral, Jerry loses her cool. She is furious at her mother and questions whether she would do the same if Jerry was a man. Here, we see a woman who hates being thought of as helpless and incapable, no matter how much she takes advantage of that prejudice. She makes a decision and goes to see Timmy. He wears a neck brace throughout the film, and it is hinted that a woman named Rita, who he thought would marry him, did this to him. Jerry tells Timmy that she is willing to be a drug mule as she needs the money for her mother’s treatment. She is hired as Timmy sees the potential in hiring an innocent-looking woman for the job, as she wouldn’t be stopped or questioned by the police. And that’s how Jerry becomes a drug mule.
Jerry’s Job In The Drug Business
Jerry is someone who is good at her job, and she soon becomes indispensable to Timmy and Daler’s business. Timmy is slowly falling in love with her, and he shaves his beard, so that she finds him more attractive. But Jerry’s success turns out to be a thorn in the side of other members of the gang. One person calls up Inspector Lal and tells him that he will find a girl who delivers drugs every day. Based on the tip, the bus was raided. But luckily for Jerry, the inspector who checks her belongings is in cahoots with the gang, and he lets her go. But the incident has shaken her up. She cries in fear in front of Timmy and asks him how he could know the details of her journey. Timmy checks the phones of his members and finds that one of them has erased his call records. He questions him, and he tells Timmy that another member had borrowed his phone that morning. Timmy shoots the latter, guessing that he was the one to make the call. But Jerry is still afraid, and she says that it might not be right to trust the other guy either. Just as Timmy is about to shoot him, Jerry asks him to stop. One would think it’s because she doesn’t want more blood on her hands, but Jerry just closes her ears and turns around. This makes one thing very clear. Jerry was acting on self-preservation, and she was ruthless about it. No matter her hesitation about killing a person, she took the step because she thought of herself. This is not a helpless woman.
The next day, she tells Timmy that she wants to quit this job as she doesn’t want to see more people die. He tells her that the only way people quit this business is when either the police shoot them, or they shoot each other. He admits that he thinks of her as a good person and that he will let her go. And he does so. But just as she is about to leave, he grabs her hand and tells her that he understands her cunning. He says a certain thing—Jerry knows when to address him as’ Sir,’ when to say’ Timmy Ji, ‘and when to say’ Timmy.’ This reminds us of when Jerry says at the beginning of the film that she knows how to react to situations as a woman. Timmy tells her to give him a massage, and while we did not see it on screen, we know he tried to sexually assault her. But Jerry pushes him away and runs away. Unfortunately for Timmy, he falls back onto a table, and he is paralyzed from the waist below, with his pants down. This solves the mystery of his neck brace. He must have acted like that with Rita as well, and strained his neck when she tried to protect herself.
Jerry reaches home in a huff and puff, worried about the safety of her family. She finds the members of the gang already present. Till that point, her family was unaware of her work so this was a shock to them. The gang tells Jerry that she must deliver a final consignment of 100 kilos of cocaine to buy her freedom. When they leave, Sarbati tells her daughter that since she got into a mess because of her medical needs, she will help her get out of it as well. The next day, Jerry gets ready to deliver the drugs. Her mother, her sister, and their neighbor, who fancies her mother, Anil, are helping her. But due to a comedy of errors, Rinku and the boy who fancies Cherry also join in for the ride. Jerry delivers the consignment to its destination and leaves. We come to know that Daler plans to kill Jerry and her family once the delivery is done. Just then, they get a call from Malik, the distributor, that only 10 kilos of the consignment is drugs. The rest of it is salt. Jerry calls Daddu, aka Mohinder Singh Chandala, and tells him that she is smarter than she looks. She also reveals that she is aware that they plan on killing her. Jerry lets him know that he can collect the drugs from her and become the boss. But in return, he must spare her life.
‘Good Luck Jerry’ Ending Explained: Where Does Jerry Hide The Drugs?
When Daddu comes to collect the cocaine, it turns out that she has double-crossed him. Her hand is forced by Jigar to shoot the bullet through Daddu, and as she is being taken to Daler, their van is intercepted by Malik. He kidnaps Jerry because he plans on double-crossing Daler and pocketing the extra profit. But it turns out that Jerry had thought too far ahead, because when they thought that they had found the real drugs, it was just ground-up sugar. One of the goons takes Jerry to a room and tries to intimidate her. But Jerry tricks him into bringing her mother and sister into the room with her. Then she closed the door, and the three of them beat him up. The goon obviously did not think much of women’s presence of mind and of their courage. Why else would he willingly agree to be outnumbered three to one? As the men from Jerry’s family shed tears outside the room, thinking that the women are being beaten up, it is they who are the attackers. Are women really ever helpless?
Just then, the police break open the door and enter the room. Jerry is arrested, but she makes a deal with the police to help them nab Daler and his gang in return for her freedom. She is sent to engage him in conversation while the police surround the place. However, Daler is ready for this, and he is the one who holds the police hostage. Luckily, at that very moment, the boys from Arjeeling Momo Company arrived at the scene with the drugs. But unfortunately, so does Malik, and there is a whole shootout. It gets worse when they realize that what they thought were drugs was just some flour. It all ends with the villains shooting each other and Jerry saving her family and herself. Despite it all, Inspector Lal says that he is going to arrest her. Jerry tells him that she had hidden the drugs in his house when she went to give his wife a massage. With that piece of information, Jerry buys her freedom and emerges the winner in the situation.
Final Thoughts: What Works for ‘Good Luck Jerry’?
Before we overpraise “Good Luck Jerry,” let’s get the negatives out of the way. We can agree that Jahnvi Kapoor did not look the part one bit. But for a film centered around her character, she was also not the one doing the heavy lifting for the acting. It was the supporting actors, especially Neeraj Sood, Sushant Singh, and Sahil Mehta. Jahnvi has the innocent face required for the role. But there is an underlying charm to the character when she overcomes all odds that the actor could just not bring to the screen. There is one thing we noticed though, when Mita Vashisht, who plays Sarbati, says, “The work is done, but the plan begins now.” The director realized the strengths and weaknesses of his actors. He knew that the recipe for success for this movie was not going to be Jahnvi Kapoor’s big expressive eyes but the comic timing and ease of manner of the supporting cast. And he made the appropriate use of it. Also, while the movie was perfect, the scene where everyone is silent and acts out who they are through gestures felt like overkill. But when it comes to the jokes on northeastern people, there was a certain cleverness to them. In the sense that their racist nature was apparent, and they were replied to, in kind, on the screen itself. But the real message of this movie is that thinking a woman to be helpless and weak has always been a man’s greatest mistake, and they pay dearly for that in these events.
It is a great movie, and we would recommend it to everyone. If every remake were to be like “Good Luck Jerry,” we might actually start looking forward to them.
“Good Luck Jerry” is a 2022 Drama Thriller film directed by Siddharth Sengupta.
