Movie: Jawaan
Rating: 2.75/5
Banner: Arunachal Creations
Cast: Sai Dharam Tej, Mehreen, Prasanna, Kota Srinivasa Rao, JP, Satyam Rajesh and others
Music: Thaman S
Cinematography: K V Guhan
Editor: S R Sekhar, Madhu
Art: Brahma Kadali
Presented by: Dil Raju
Producer: Krishna
Written and direction: BVS Ravi
Release date: Dec 01, 2017
'Jawaan' has been in the news since a long time. After series of flops, Sai Dharam Tej has done this film to reinvent himself. Recently released trailer had also generated great buzz.
Let’s find out its merits and demerits...
Story:
Jai (Sai Dharam Tej) is a scientist in DRDO. A foreigner offers an Indian bad guy Keshav (Prasanna) Rs 500 Cr if he can steal a new kind of missile called Octopus being developed by DRDO and bring it to his place.
Jai averts Keshav’s first plan successfully. So, Keshav, who is also Jai’s classmate in highschool, enters Jai’s life and threatens him in a clever way. Jai has to save his family as well as save the country now.
Artistes’ Performances:
Sai Dharam Tej as young RSS candidate-cum-DRDO scientist has done good job. This role is more of an intelligent one and he has pulled it off neatly.
Prasanna as the main sophisticated villain is good. Subbaraju and Kota in brief and key roles create impact. This is another film that proves that Mehreen neither has looks nor acting skills. She has also gained too much of weight.
Technical Excellence:
This kind of action thrillers work when camera and background musical score are of top quality.
Cinematographer K V Guhan has done superb job. In many action stunts, his camera has shined well.
Thaman has given two catchy songs, but his background score is good.
Editing is okay but it still needs to be trimmed. Artwork and production values are decent.
Highlights:
Technical Values
Sai Dharam Tej
Drawback:
Inconsistent screenplay
Climax
Copy of many recent movies
Analysis:
Of late, directors are moving towards thrillers that have an intelligent villain who keeps hero on the run to save his family/ country/ society from a dangerous situation.
Ram Charan and Aravind Swamy starrer “Dhruva” was such a perfect action thriller.
Director BVS Ravi’s “Jawaan” more or less treads the similar path of “Dhruva” but this one has novel setup -- India’s main defence institute DRDO, which is located in Hyderabad.
Like in “Dhruva”, it is mostly face-off between hero and villain. The villain is too smart and makes hero’s life miserable and instils fear in him to save his family.
Like in “Spyder”, there is a huge sequence, where villain (played by Prasanna) tries to kill each member of his family and hero is in far off place from them to save them.
While in “Spyder”, Mahesh Babu sends milkman, vegetable vendor, and gas supplier to divert the villain’s mission, here Sai Dharam Tej does a similar act by making a call at phone booth.
It is not to say, “Jawaan” is exact copy of those movies. This action drama too has similar tensed moments, similar duel between hero and villain.
Here too, hero doesn’t know where the villain resides and who he is, though the audience know the identity of the villain at the very beginning.
Director BVS Ravi has written a good plot to make a riveting thriller with an interesting backdrop (DRDO) which hasn't been explored much. However, his screenplay is full of p(l)otholes. Lot of things happen related to the story in the first half but none of them really thrill you.
The drama heightens only when villain enters into the house of hero. But the execution of these scenes too are bad.
While “Dhruva” is example of top-quality making, “Jawaan” is a poor version of it. On paper, the plot is interesting but the narration and execution lack intensity.
To be fair, except for the silly and cheaply shot climax sequences, second half holds the interest to some extent.
When Prasanna belittles India, Sai Dharam giving him befitting reply (a lengthy dialogue sequence) will definitely work with the audiences. Such episodes have made the second half better compared to the first half.
Cinematography and action choreography complement each other here.
However, these kind of movies require intelligent and emotional climax to leave an impression. Here, the director has faltered completely. The final sequence defies the logic and it is filmed in an ineffective way.
The film turns boring whenever heroine comes on to the screen. The heroine is too heavy in frame too. Sai Dharam Tej and Prasanna have done their best.
All in all, “Jawaan” mostly treads “Dhruva’s” path but it is not that riveting. Nevertheless it has some interesting episodes in the second half. Overall, it is a fairly better movie for Sai Dharam Tej but not for audiences.
Bottom-line: Not Exciting Enough
