Film: Jalsa
Rating: 3.25/5
Banner: Geeta Arts
Cast: Pawan Kalyan, Ileana, Prakash Raj, Kamalini Mukherjee, Parvati Melton, Tanikella Bharani, Mukesh Rishi, Ali, Brahmanandam etc
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Story, Screenplay, Dialogue, Direction: Trivikram Sreenivas
Producer: Allu Aravind
Released On: 2nd April 2008
Story:
Sanjay Sahu (Pawan Kalyan) is a degree student who falls in crush with a girl (Kamalini). But her father (Prakash Raj) negates the marriage and brings her different alliance. Dejected Sanjay falls in love with another girl Bhagmathi (Ileana). On parallel track Jotsna aka Jo (Parvati Melton) also falls in the crush of Sanjay. The romantic trysts and rendezvous continue in their way.
The interval bang introduces Pawan as former Naxalite. The second half runs on action track where Sanjay develops strife with a factionist Damaodar Reddy (Mukesh Rishi). The motive of factionist is to capture lands and expand his properties. And the motive of ex-naxalite is to kill monopoly and distribute properties equally for all.
And as a surrendered naxalite, Sanjay develops humanity. He teaches humanity to Damodar Reddy at last.
Performances:
Pawan Kalyan is at his best as usual. There are no signs of growing age in him. His appearance recalls us the get up he had in ‘Badri’ and ‘Kushi’.
Ileana stands as an example for her mermaid figure and dubbing by Colors Swathi brought her a new appeal. Parvati Melton is hot and gorgeous while Kamalini is ok.
Prakash Raj was given not a high voltage role. His character has submissiveness through out. He justified that standing in his shoes. Mukesh Rishi’s screen presence is tremendous. He was given very high introduction and his cruelty is magnified. But his episode was ended in a simple way.
Brahmanandam, Sunil and Dharmavarapu have done their best with comedy. Devi Sri Prasad scored high with his music. And Trivikram Srinivas could have dealt the movie in a better way. It appears that he too was carried away by some formula features with this film. The non-stop punches and in depth dialogues if expected in big way are not seen.
Analysis:
The combination of Trivikram and Pawan Kalyan boosted up the expectations on a whole. Adding to this, since the audio launch, the film is being compared to Khushi by the unit members, augmenting the expectations still further. That has made the film pull bigger crowds on first day every where and the release news has become talk of the state as well. But the film is a few inches far to meet the point of expectations.
The first grace in the film is Pawan Kalyan’s look. He looked very charming and younger than expected. His performance holds his trade mark and in a few scenes it appeared that he added new mannerisms to his style. Right from delivering dialogues to dance to histrionics, everything is up to the mark. While watching the film it flashes on mind that it could be the same ‘Satyagrahi’ which Pawan intended to do earlier. If not the same, the content relating to naxalism and socialism may hold similarity.
Parvati Melton looked gorgeous of all, though Ileana plays the main lead. Colors Swathi dubbed for Ileana in this film and that brought new appeal to her portrayal on a whole. Kamalini Mukherjee has almost a guest appearance.
And the aspect that pulled crowds towards this film is music. All the songs scored good marks among masses but the picturization of the song ‘Chalaro Chalore…’ is very weak. It was shot on Prakash Raj and Pawan Kalyan. The song makes the heart of film. But that was shot in a very weak way. And the first two songs are shot in very interesting way. Parvati is given an exclusive song ‘Jennifer Lopez..’ with Pawan. Other songs were shot on Pawan and Ileana.
Coming to the comedy part, Brahmamandam did well as Head Constable Pranav. His role loosely holds similarity with the one he played in ‘Krishna’. Sunil-Dharmavarapu comedy is average.
First half of the film goes with no serious stuff. It was made on action and romance blended hilarious track till the interval. The interval twist comes abrupt. Second half is ok to large extent but the climax killed the tempo. Pawan Kalyan’s dialogues after piercing the sword on road sounded out of the blue. And closing the story of powerful villain Mukesh Rishi also didn’t dealt well. There are no enough of emotion levels in the scene. The film ends up with an ulterior message and symbolism is brought with a sword. The problem is with the conviction levels in drama.
Plus Points In the Film-
Songs
Pawan Kalyan
Brahmanandam
Could Be Better Aspects-
Story Line
Climax
Dialogues
Dialogues in the film could have been better as there is Trivikram Srinivas in this portfolio. The much expected punches worked only here and there but not up to expectations.
To sum up, the film gives a time pass treat and gels well with masses if they connect well with second half and climax. It can be openly stated that it is the best film made after ‘Khushi’ in Pawan’s career.
(SiraSri can be reached at [email protected])
