I know that it’s hard to feel sorry for
me. I speak from a place of privilege.
After all, I watch movies for a living.
But sometimes
the films I endure are so downright awful
that I I feel it’s legitimate for me to
whine just a little.
Today is that day.
And Jai Mummy Di is that film.
Jai Mummy Di’s only redeeming factor is
that it’s short. Genuinely, there is nothing
else I can recommend in this movie – the
acting is bizarre, the writing is sloppy,
the plot is incoherent and the background
music is so purposefully annoying that you
want to weep. Example – when Poonam Dhillon
playing a fiery Punjabi aunty enters the frame,
the background music announces: Amma, amma.
Supriya Pathak plays the other amma.
These two annoyingly screechy women are neighbors.
Then one family moves to Ghaziabad.
Then the other family follows 
and they become neighbors again.
Only debutant director Navjot Gulati
who has also written the screenplay
can tell us if this worked on paper.
On screen, it’s forced and desperately unfunny.
This film has been co-produced by Luv Ranjan
and the usual Ranjan repertory players 
make an appearance.
Sunny Singh and Sonnalli Seygall
who you might remember from Sonu ke Titu ki Sweety
play Puneet and Saanjh, the children
of the two warring aunties.
Puneet and Saanjh love each other
 but don’t have the courage
to tell their unhinged mothers, who they refer
to as Mogambo and Gabbar. Navjot rehashes
the usual collection of Punjabi clichés –
these good folks are either drinking or eating or
fighting or dancing. Sunny mostly looks confused,
almost as though he’s thinking that the
monster success of Sonu ke Titu ki Sweety
should have led to better material than this.
Sonnali is as forgettable as she was in that film.
Meanwhile poor Poonam and Supriya scowl
and scream. I felt bad on their behalf.
The film is also bizarrely tone deaf. In one
scene, Puneet lies about being gay to his
fiancée so that they can break up the marriage.
She kisses and strokes him and says something
to the effect of: I will convert you by 
tomorrow morning. How is this funny?
The unkindest cut is the big reveal about
why the two ladies have spent a lifetime
sniping at each other.
There are hints of a romance
between them and I was hoping that Jai Mummy
Di would take that transgressive leap.
No such luck.
 The explanation is so lame that
it would have been better if
 they didn't give one.
Or even better, if they have made
an entirely different film.
