Jakkanna Review

It's that season in Tollywood when not coming up with and forcing rhymes down the audience's throats could be crimes.  We for one just came with one.  Take one more.  Without rhymes in 'Jakkanna, Sunil is nil.  Another one.  I am no Modi to help you, I am a rowdy.  Ok, this one is plagiarized from this film itself.  From the hero in a permanent state of frivolity to the cop on (funny) fire, everyone is obsessed with rhyming lines in this film.

Ganesh (Sunil) is in Vizag, wooing a girl (Mannara Chopra) full-time.  Or so we think.  He is on another mission.  It's to trace Bairagi (Kabhir Dulhan Singh) out.  Now, Bairagi is a dreaded criminal who has eliminated the blood-thirsty Dega.  He is living in disguise as a mechanic.  The cops have failed to even have an imaginary sketch of him over the years.  Ganesh, who feigns timidity but is an accomplished fighter, cleverly gets in touch with late Dega's son by posing himself as Bairagi's enemy.  Eventually, it's revealed that Ganesh actually wants to help Bairagi.

Writer-director Vamshi Krishna Akella has a good story line, but he panders to the compulsions of commerce.  Playing to the gallery, he force-fits pointless scenes, dishing out a spoof fest that comes next only to Selfie Raja in its obsessions.  Having spoofed Balakrishna, Sai Kumar and certain Pawan Kalyan's dialogues through the overdone Prudhvi, he doesn't spare even Asish Vidhyarthi, who is asked to do the iconic "Veena step" just to make sure Chiranjeevi's image months ahead of his 150th film's release is encashed.  At one point, Manchu Manoj is imitated by Sunil.

This may be 1000th film where the heroine is there to make the hero lose his senses (just in time for a song), but in 'Jakkanna', it doesn't get more mediocre.  From a vulgar eve-teaser who says women are meant to quench the male's appetite to a hero who produces an alter-ego at the right time (what better time can it be other than when she exposes her waist?), everything is there to either as a voyeur's delight or an excuse for another number.  Of course, a couple of songs (music by Dinesh) are good enough, visually and music-wise, too, never mind the fact that they thanklessly hinder the flow.

There is a checklist that hasn't been forgotten.  Memory loss comedy - tick.  Police as a dumbed down version of Legend or Sai Kumar - tick.

There shouldn't have been too much of reliance on comedy as there was enough space for intensity in the story.  Just because the hero is an eccentric do-gooder, it needn't be that compulsively comedy-oriented.

Sunil has of late been typecast in certain type of roles.  His body language needs fleshing out.  He is stuck in that Maryada Ramanna mode.  The hangover refuses to go.  As for others, Prudhvi as CI Katappa and Sapthagiri in the role of a fake Karate master do their parts well.  Kabir Dulhan Singh gets a very important and full-fledged role.  He is convincing in his act.

Mannara Chopra needed a better re-launch pad in Telugu.  She has no scope for performance and her chemistry with Sunil just doesn't work.  The effort she has put in terms of getting the lip sync right is commendable.

The technical departments could have done a better job.  Except for the songs, the cinematography is largely passable.

Verdict: A good story line has been wasted in the quagmire of Tollywood-style commerciality.  Too many rhymes and parodies do 'Jakkanna' in.

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