Movie: Joru
Rating: 2/5
Banner: Sri Keerthi Films
Cast: Sundeep Kishan, Rashi Khanna, Priya Banerjee, Sushma, Bramhanandam, Sayaji Sinde and others
Music: Bheems
Cinematography: M R Phalani Kumar
Editor: S R Shekar
Producer: Ashok, Nagarjun
Story, Screenplay, Dialogues, Direction: Kumar Nagendra
Release Date: Nov 07, 2014
One hero and three heroines instantly generate enough curiosity. The posters have been splashed with Sandeep Kishan surrounded by three girls and that was publicity enough for the film. Incidentally, the film has been directed by Gundello Godavari director Kumar Nagendra. Let’s check out how the film has come out…
Story:
Sandeep (Sandeep Kishan) bumps into NRI Annapurna alias Anu (Rashi Khanna) during a road trip. As they go on, they are attacked quite a few times and Sandeep finds out that she is the daughter of Vizag MLA Sadasivam (Sayaji Shinde). Sandeep promises that he will safely drop her off with her father. The rest of the story shows Anu’s past and why they are being attacked and what Sandeep does to save her.
Artistes’ Performances:
His character is routine and it does not push the skills of Sandeep Kishan at all. Barring a bit of action, the character is no different from the many characters he does in almost all his films. Having said that, he does play his part well.
Rasi Khanna gets a few whistles when she comes on to the screen, thanks to her youthful role in Oohalu Gusagusalade. The director and cameraman have totally focused on her and she has got quite a few extreme close-ups. She also gets to dance around in a beach song, though it is obvious that it has been included just to add that dash of glamour. It is quite obvious that she is not very good at dancing, but she pulls it off by doing some skin show. Again, like Sandeep, her character will do no value addition to her career.
Similarly, Sushma also tried to manage the show with her glamour. But it is the other girl Priya Banerjee who misses out in the bargain as she totally looks plain jane when compared to the other two girls.
Brahmanandam gets a full-length role but he does not make proper use of it.
Saptagiri’s comedy will be liked only by a select few. Unlike in other films, where he had author-backed roles, in Joru, Saptagiri fails to mesmerize the audience with his antics.
On the other hand, Sayaji Shinde who is now a regular in Telugu films seems to have forgotten his Telugu. Instead of speaking good Telugu after so many films, his diction falters which is not pleasing to the ears.
There are many other artistes, but even those like Ajay and Prudhvi are wasted.
Technical Excellence:
Though it is a low budget film, the visuals are rich and the producers must be congratulated for making a quality product. They have also succeeded in drawing audiences by giving loads of publicity.
The songs composed by Bheems are good and are visually appealing. Sunny’s background score is also good and the cinematography must be appreciated. The colour grading has been done well and the interior scenes also look rich, which is rare for small films.
Director Kumar Nagendra shows that he is capable of getting good work from his crew. However, due to problems with the script, all his efforts go waste and Joru fails to withhold the interest of the audience. Since he started off with an offbeat film, Nagendra has tried to put together a commercial film this time around. Like mentioned earlier, script plays the villain in his story.
Highlights:
- Glamour factor
- Climax
Drawbacks:
- First Half
- Screenplay
- Story
Analysis:
It is among those films which sincerely believe that shifting the entire cast to the villain’s house during the second half and creating comedy will win over the masses. And before going into the chaotic second half, the director has wasted too much time on the road.
Usually, road films are not the forte of Telugu directors. Yet, Nagendra spends a good one hour on the road before taking the story to the second half.
Since the first half does not have any story per se, all time is wasted in zooming onto the face of Rasi Khanna and zooming out. Some scenes are also used as build-up shots for hero Sandeep Kishan.
But the real pain point comes in the form of Saptagiri’s character. Not knowing how to use him, the director gives his character the task of teaching singing to a bear. Well, it does sound ridiculous and it is indeed ridiculous.
Also, the film’s interval twist is nothing new. It has been seen many times in films before, so the first half seems to have totally gone waste.
In the second half, almost the entire cast lands up at the house of the villain and does the routine drill of trying to make the villain turn a new leaf. Despite all the efforts put in by every actor, the film fails to make you laugh. Well, having comedy and trying to have comedy are two things and Joru belongs to the second category.
But during the climax scenes, the director finally succeeds in making the audience laugh. This and the glam quotient provided by three heroines work in favour of the film.
Since they went overboard with publicity, the film managed to get good openings. If the film manages to sustain itself for a few days, it may recover the money invested as it is a low-budget film.
Setting aside the commercial outcome of the film, in terms of story and its narration, Joru bores you to the core. It tests your patience with inane comedy scenes which leave you totally clueless.
Bottomline: Tiring!
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
