Jalsa - 6/10

Jalsa has great energy levels of Pawan Kalyan, excellent songs by Devi, superb dialogues by Trivikram and many pros towards it but still it is not an extra ordinary movie though it certainly has some extra qualities to an average movie. Thus it is an mixed affair which doesn’t let your heart give an unanimous nod.

What is it all about ?

One man show of the protagonist who takes everything easy. Let it be girls, naxalism, factionism..anything.

Highlights:

– Title: JALSA - Simple, yet catchy and terrific title which caters to the expectations of millions.

– Pawan Kalyan: Yes, he is the biggest highlight of the movie. It is his show all the way. He is back into the form. He has shown tremendous energy levels once again. It is nice to see Pawan enjoying the role and entertaining the audience too. Splendid work by him. He is at extreme ease in romantic scenes, confronation scenes and comedy scenes. Right from his introduction he rocked the screen. Only complaints being, he didn’t dance much and his dialogues were difficult to catch in some scenes.

– Music: Devi has done fab job once again. All the songs are good. “My Heart Is Beating adola” and “Gallo telinattunde” are extremely good tunes. However he should check his rythms as some of them are carrying the feel of his earlier works.

– Dialogues: This is the core strength of Trivikram and he doesn’t dissappoint us. This is one area where we can bank on him. It is usually very difficult to get all his dialogues at first instance itself. Our respect towards him grows by leaps and bounds when his films are watched again and again where in we start noticing his creative brilliance and sense of humour laced through out the film. Jalsa is no exception and he has penned down sum(ya it is not some) marvelous dialogues.

Eg:

1) Naxalite: vaadi car pelite potaadu vere car pelite bhayapadi potaadu.
2) Pawan: nenoo margadarsilo cheranu monnemadhyane oka gun konnaanu.
3) Tanikella Bharani:

a) noppi teleyakunda champadaniki manamemannaa doctors maaaa

b) Tranfer cheyinchadaniki vaadi kaallu veedi kaallu pattukovali kaani champadaaniki katti pattukunte chaalu.
4) Mahesh:
a) aa abbaayi churuggaa unde vaadu. anduke cheppina time kannaa padi rojula munde chani poyaadu.
b) mana desamlo bratakadaaniki avakasam kanna chachche saulabhyam yekkuva.
5) Prakash Raj: vaadiki punaravasam naaku vana vasam.
6) Pawan’s koti rupayaalu - moodu lakshala counter
7) Pawan to Kamalini: nannu pelli chesukunte nee life baguntundhi ani convince cheyyadaaniki, nenu salesman ni kaanu. inkaa purugula mandu meeda, dialogue on distance regarding miserable farmers, yoga comedy scene of Ali, vaana kalam-burada…etc comparison with girls and goons….
Oh !!! there are too many to mention.

– Mahesh’s voice over is a good gesture by him…and welcoming trend in Telugu Film Industry.

– Characterizations:

1) Pawan’s characterization is very well written in the first half. It is interesting and innovative too but a bit unconvincing. If his character was not linked with naxalism then it would have scored full marks.

2) Sunil, Dharmavarapu Subramanyam track is a great stuff from Trivikram. He needs special accolades for bringing in an yet another new element in designing characters.

– Interesting things:

1) The way love tracks are used to create humor between Pawan and Prakash Raj is hilarious.

2) Villain Mukhesh Rishi’s character is etched well. Mafia vs Factionism scene and many scenes of him show the prowess of Trivikram in handling action elements. All the blasting scenes are terrific. ‘katti fight’ sequence with Villain is a ‘katti’ scene in the climax.

3) Naming Brahmi’s character as ‘Pranav’ and giving an interesting intro for him scores well. Even the scenes of milk packets, and naming 10 rupees as 1000 rupees are nice. It is interesting to see Brahmanandam getting names like Gajala, Brahmi, Bobby, Pranav…these days. However it is getting monotonous to see Brahmi in similar characters in many films.

4) Prakash - Pawan scenes in Naxalism episode.

5) There are many satires in this film.

a) TV9
b) Ileana (makeup lenide choodalem dialogue)
c) Politicians (Imitation of Pawan is top class)
d) Margadarshi
e) Moddu Seenu

6) All ‘fight’ sequences are interesting. Nice to see that there are less ‘flight’ sequences (where in the goons/hero fly in the air through out the fight which is the current trend in telugu films). There is less ‘wire’ work and more ‘veru’(different) work.

7) Production values are good. Some ’sets’ have helped the ’sequences’. The house where in Pawan resides is good. I think it is his own house though not sure. It has been used well to cann the scenes like, Pawan and Ileana both thinking of each other in different floors.

Lowlights:

– Story: Unconvincing story is a major drawback of the film. The first half is extremely good with excellent comedy tracks and entertaining love tracks and interesting characterization of hero but the biggest jolt is faced at the interval. Don’t know why the Naxalism point was taken but it did not add anything to the film but made it look odd. This is one fine example which shows how complex it is even for great writers like Trivikram to write an appealing story when such plots are picked. It is actually a welcome gesture to come up with something innovative but there should be great precision in narrating such elements which is missing in this film. This naxalite episode has taken this film completely out of track.

– Screenplay: It is absurd at some instances. Especially in the second half. Once in a while bomb blasts/attacks happen and in the immediate scene hero would be romancing his love. Much care should have been taken in this area.

– Interval plot: Though the fight in which Ali is taken as the source is nice, the way it is used to bring the interval block puts off the entire feel. The protagonist suddenly uttering lengthy dialogues on ‘kastam’ and revealing his identity didn’t work out well.

– Hero’s characterization creates lot of confusion at the end. It starts off well in the first half and post interval, too many variations in his character results in dilemma. He is shown as the guy with no serious intentions in anything. The way he reacts in the interval, the way he gets into naxalism, the way he gets out of it are all uncovincing. These things trouble the audience in connecting with his character.

– Similarities with earlier films. There are many traces of Khushi. The love track of Pawan, Ileana have some resemblences of Pawan-Bhoomika in Khushi. The climax fight also seems to be a replica of that film. Even a side character like Babloo in Khushi is replaced with another character here. Strange to see that some dialogues like - “nenu digadamantoo vunte ide beginning” by Mukhesh Rushi is an exact repetition of Prakash Raj’s dialogue in “Nuvve Nuvve”. It is interesting to see that in most of Trivikram’s films heroine gets engaged to some one else. It got repeated here too.

– “Gallo telinattunde” song’s choreography is excellent for the first 1 minute. Excellent costumes, expressions, movements….how ever this graph slipped down later on. There is nothing much to rave about the picturization of other songs.

– Passive characterization of Prakash Raj and also of Mukhesh Rushi towards the end didn’t give the enough kick required though the hero kicks them with dialogues.

– Terrific challenge scene in jail between Mukesh and Pawan but routine execution of the strategy of kidnapping villain’s son is a let down.

Final Touch:

This film has many finer elements that it should have been a much better film. Naxalism point didn’t stick it well. It is obvious that nothing much can be done on writing point of view when such elements are to be incorporated in a commercial film. The efforts of Trivikram, Pawan, Devi should be commended as this seems to be the near best possible thing that can be done to such a script.

However they should take much care in choosing the back drop in their next films. Trivikram has shown his mark on the bioscope, scored good marks but also gave scope for remarks. Trivikram is a great dialogue writer, good director and an ok kinda story writer. Hoping to see him excel in all the three departments.

“partlu partlu gaa chooste ee cinema bavundi” anipistundi. kaani naxalism, factionism, romance ni 3 hours mixilo vesi chooste konchem odd gaa vuntundi ani cinema choosaaka anipistundi. Even ‘wit’h his ‘wit’ Trivikram could not surpass this hurdle.

However it is an entertaining stuff and is a feast for Pawan’s and Trivikram’s admirers as they excelled well in their core departments.

‘Re’-'view’ing is the case with many as it carries Pawan’s glamour and Trivikram’s grammar.

Tags: Devi Sri Prasad, Dialogues, Highlights, Illeana, Jalsa, Lowlights, Movie Review, Music, Naxalism, Pawan Kalyan, Screenplay, Story, Trivikram, Trivikram Sreenivas, Trivikram Srinivas, What is it all about ?

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