It stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Irrfan Khan, with Shabana Azmi, Jackie Shroff, Atul Kulkarni and Chandan Roy Sanyal in supporting roles.

The felon is Niyaaz Shaikh, who was charged for the rape and murder of a young woman named Sia, and the case against him is set for hearing in four days.

All evidence suggests that Niyaaz is the perpetrator, so Anuradha has to work hard to win the case, and with time running out, she tries to get help from her policeman friend Yohan, who has been suspended from the force by other corrupt officers for flouting the rules and regulations too often.

Mahesh asks renowned public prosecutor Ronit, who has been defeated by Anuradha in the past, to take up the case as rape is a critical issue the current government is fighting.

Cutting the gas pipes and planning to set Anuradha's house on fire, the men leave her bound and gagged on the floor.

[13] Irrfan Khan was signed to star opposite Aishwarya and Shabana Azmi, Jackie Shroff, Atul Kulkarni and Chandan Roy Sanyal were confirmed as a part of the film's supporting cast.

"[24] Filmfare rated 3 stars out of 5, praised the performances of all the actors and noted "The film steams up some good thrills and then throws a bucket full of sentimentality over them and douses them out.

"[25] The Guardian also gave the film 3 stars, and mentioned "For all the rot Gupta dwells on, there's something refreshing about Jazbaa within the wider Bollywood context: it'll make for brisk, pacy, adult entertainment.

"[26] Bollywood Hungama gave it 3 stars, stating "Aishwarya Rai Bachchan with her 'initially-rusty-later spellbinding' performance, carries the film on her shoulders.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan perfectly looks the part and even does a fairly decent job, barring certain emotional scenes where she clearly goes over the top.

"[28] Writing for Hindustan Times, Rohit Vats gave a rating of 3 stated, "The film is a well paced thriller, but primary characters' penchant for invoking whistles dilutes the thrill to some extent.

"[31] Subhash K. Jha said that "It's a hardhitting unconstitutional message, packaged and projected with a precarious panache peculiar to Sanjay Gupta's cinema.

"[32] On the contrary, Shomini Sen from CNN-IBN criticised the film for its melodramatic, high pitched and unintentionally funny dialogues and wrote "Jazbaa scores only because of the performances.

"[33] Ananya Bhattacharya writing for India Today gave 2.5 stars criticized Gupta's direction and wrote "The problem with Jazbaa lies in the overdose of melodrama and dialogues that make your ears bleed.

"[34] Saibal Chatterjee from NDTV gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and stated "Jazbaa is a slick production all right and it does deliver a few thrilling moments and an above-average climax.

Overall, Jazbaa feels like a wasted effort, a clear case of superficial style triumphing over substance by a fair distance.

"[35] Sukanya Verma of Rediff gave 2 stars and described the film as "A mostly watchable thriller marred by its director Sanjay Gupta's penchant for excesses.