Neil Nitin Goes The Extra Mile for Jail

Jail is the movie to watch out for. If not for anything else, for the astounding amount of effort actor Neil Nitin Mukesh has invested in the making of this movie directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. 

Neil Nitin Mukesh spent a couple of hours at Tihar Jail in the hope of trying to understand the ambience of a real jail and the condition of life of the inmates. The experience has left the actor awed and deeply touched. He reflects on how wonderful an idea it is to put the prisoners in a sprawling 400 acre city, aiming more towards reforming them and returning them to the society as normal individuals rather than punishing them for their crimes. Director Madhur Bhandarkar, co-actor Manoj Bajpai and music composer Shamir Tandon also accompanied Neil Nitin on his trip to Tihar Jail. Model turned actor, Mugdha Godse, who also stars in the movie, wasn’t accompanying them.

The group received a warm welcome from the inmates who broke merrily out into jigs and dances when the actors, director and music composer sang Daata Sun Le and some other songs. As Jail is about life in a prison, the movie would be screened in Tihar Jail for the inmates. Neil spent a considerable time interacting with the inmates, notingtheir behavior and mannerisms and absorbing the general feel of the place.

That is, however, just the beginning of Neil Nitin Mukesh’s preparations for the movie. He is reading up a vast amount of literature on prison and prisoners – stories, documents and what not. To top it all, to make the dirty unkempt look he would be sporting in the movie more real, he actually went without baths! And, didn’t change his clothes for days! There is more. Neil Nitin deliberately cut himself of from communication with anybody outside the film set in order to get into the character a prison inmate who has very limited or no communication with outsiders.

Madhur Bhandarkar has always been known to be a perfectionist and supremely professional. It seems he has found the right match in his actor. Neil Nitinhas great expectations from Jail, and while expressing his pride for the movie, mentions that he is sure that the audience would appreciate this hard hitting movie which is amazingly real life.