JALSA on Celluloid and on Cricket minefield

With the unbelievable openings and tremendous response all over the world for the movie Jalsa. PK proves once again that his power at Box-Office still remains as strong as ever in spite of a series of failures prior to ‘JALSA’. After a very long time PK fans are celebrating and having Jalsa of their own with their hero finally delivering a decent hit.

Similarly, Team India and the cricket crazy fans too are having their own Jalsa squaring the Future Cup Test Series by avenging their defeat at Ahmedabad inside three days with an equally convincing win over their South African counterparts. On a cricket minefield where the ball took its own course surprising even the bowlers who hurled it at the batsmen, the loss of toss did not play a major part in the end as it was thought to be. The test got finished inside three days as did the previous one but with a different winner.

As usual, the importance of VVS Laxman’s first innings half century was once again ignored by one and all with Man of the Match Ganguly’s 87 taking the center stage. South Africa who held on to a draw in the first test at Chennai and destroyed India in the second Test at Ahmedabad failed to withstand Ishanth Sharma, who came into the side after missing previous two tests. Dhoni surprised everyone by letting Harbhajan Singh open the bowling in the second innings. Harbhajan won the Man of the series award, though in my mind its Virendra Sewhag should have won that trophy for his triple hundred in the first test and picking up crucial wickets with his clever bowling through out the series. Mahendra Singh Dhoni thus his test career as a captain with an emphatic victory for India and puts aside the debate over who should lead India in tests in the future whenever Anil Kumble decides to retire. For those who are statistically minded Dhoni’s first 20-20 match & ODIs as captain were washed out and ended with no result.

Now that the test series is over, every cricket lover in India would be eagerly looking forward for IPL to take off in less than a week. Though SRK was unhappy over the sales of tickets for Kolkata Tigers and vented his feelings publicly, I am sure he will be pleased and won’t regret for being the owner of a franchise, by the time IPL league championship will have a winner. Anyway more of IPL in coming weeks and for the time being lets get back to Pawan Kalyan’s Jalsa.

Saying that I am passionate about the movies and keeping myself quite about the movie ‘Jalsa’ is like saying that I am engaged and staying as bachelor forever. So let me also jump into the Bandwagon of JALSA analysts. Since the release of ‘Jalsa’ I happen to hear and overhear several opinions from various sections of the cinema loving public and the essence of the reactions from different demographics can be summarized as below.

From a hardcore PK fan - the movie rocks, songs are superb, PK’s comedy timing and body language is brilliant and this movie will shatter all records in Telugu film history. PK got blended into the character very well. Fights and Comedy are Keka…. Songs lo PK Kummesaadu….Romantic scenes lo yiraga deesadu... moththaaniki Cinema is mind-blowing

From an admirer of PK - this is PK’s best movie since 'Kushi' and a thorough entertainer. PK looks very handsome and very energetic through out the movie. But songs are not picturized well enough to show PK’s high energy levels. PK’s timing in throwing the words like ‘Bujji Pranav’, ‘Bharistha Annavugaa Bharinchu’, ‘Nenu Chaala Hot Guru’,’ Nenu Kooda Margadarsi Lo Chera’, ‘Tonnula kodhdhee Bhayaannisthaa’ was impeccable. But his action is similar to most of his earlier movies and no attempts were made to show any variations and that makes it an average movie which can be enjoyed on scene by scene basis rather than a movie as a whole. PK’s Tholi Prema still stands as his best movie ever with ‘Johnny’ as his second best.

From those with whom PK’s style doesn’t go well - It appears as if PK has not learnt from his past mistakes. He sticks to the same stereotype body language and dialogue delivery that he has been showing since ‘Badri’ and fails to recognize it’s the script that should be the hero and not the character. The movie will be a disappointment as per PK’s standards and did not live up to the high expectations that preceded the release. Songs are good for listening but not appealing on screen.

From an admirer of Trivikram - Trivikram is brilliant in narrating the story and his comedy punch lines are superb. His master stroke of getting Mahesh Babu to give the voiceover helped the movie. He has shown Ileana in a totally different getup and characterization from her previous movies and gave her a scope to excel in acting. The scene in which she offers a ‘drink’ to PK and also the scene where she says ‘Vaalaga antey’, smiling with eyes and using the technique against PK are superbly conceived. Choosing Colors Swathi to give dubbing for Ileana has really worked well. Scenes between Prakash Raj & PK are superbly handled. Placement of Title song left a lot to be desired and so does the follow-up of PK’s powerful and emotional outburst as interval’s parting scene. Dharmavarapu, Sunil & Ileana comedy episode was really novel and had the desired effect on the audiences, though Brahmanandam & Ali were not used properly. Overall, the movie did not have the stamp of the director that was seen all over his previous film ‘Athadu’. Some scenes which were lifts from other movies were not handled well… for instance the Potlakaaya allergy episode, which is a straight lift from the movie Hitch….did not bring enough laughter in the theatre. There were many noticeable flaws in screenplay and the major one being - Mukesh Rishi ordering his goons too get every detail about PK in one of the scenes and then saying that he let PK go several times prior to PK sending his son to coma. If he knew all the way about PK's steps how come he orders his goons to go and find out his entire history that he knew all along right from the time PK loses his parents.

From an admirer of Devi Sri Prasad’s music - All songs are very well composed and carry a flavor of youth. The music is trendy and very peppy and the tunes of all songs are catchy and instantly hummable. Background score for the movie is really great. Letting Baba Sehgal sing the title song is a great move, though his choices of singers for some songs continue to disappoint. ‘My Heart is beating’ is a great melody. ‘Chalore Chalore Chal’ song was composed really well keeping the naxal background in view. ‘Jennifer Lopez Sketch Geesinattuga’ song has become a rage among youth.

From those who worship Ileana – Ileana looked very pretty and sensuous with cute expressions and for the first time her acting skills were exploited to the full extent than her skin show. She looked gorgeous in the song ‘My heart is beating’. Her action after Parvathi Melton reveals she wears glasses is brilliant …

From those who liked Parvathi Melton or Kamalini in their earlier movies - Parvathi Melton sizzled, especially in the song ‘Jennifer Lopez sketchu’. She completely overshadowed Ileana in showing the glamour quotient. Kamalini makes a brief appearance and fails to leave any significant mark, though she looked as homely as ever.

From an admirer of Sirivennela - For the first time Sastry gaaru deviated from his hallmark style of expressing ‘bhaavam’ by resorting to pen lyrics sprinkling lot of English and Hindi words liberally to make them sound trendy. But the title song definitely misses his quality with the use of some words repetitively to go with praasa rather than bhaasha… Baba Sehgal wrote some sentences of title song and his massage of song gone beyond that. But ‘You and I’, ‘Chalore Chalore Chal’ songs bear his inimitable style. ‘You and I’ song even though had many English words they were placed in a meaningful way and reminded his other such songs of 80s & 90s - ‘Botany Class Vundhi’ from ‘Shiva’, Neeru gaari paaripoku from ‘Chettu kindha Pleadaru’.

From those who watch movies for comedy and entertainment - There is plenty of it. Sunil/Dharmavarapu/Ileana comedy of 10 seconds thondara/late is rib-cracking. Brahmanandam as usual evokes laughter the moment he makes his entry into the movie with Prakash Raj uttering the dialogues like Naser does in the movie Pokiri. The scenes between PK & Brahmanandam are terrific. PK himself excelled in all comedy episodes which occupy almost 80% of the movie.

From those who don’t watch movies on a regular basis and also don’t give a damn to who are involved in the movie or whether it’s a hit or flop as long as it is a good movie - The movie did test the patience of audience several times… comedy during Naxal episode, Punaraavaasam theesukunna naxalite mandhu koduthoo Janalnee koduthoo Jalsa cheyyadam…. For nobody’s fault the hero getting annoyed against society… weak characterization of PK and haphazard narration of the story through out the movie... Parugeththe ammayini repu chesthe baaguntundhanadam... I love you ani cheppina ammayiki asandharbha prelaapanatho lecture ivvadam.... PK’s action in the scene after meeting Prakash Raj as a politician giving an interview to Reporters vagairaalu… in the name of comedy are some of the examples.

Finally, as far as my personal opinion is concerned I concur with one of my aunts. She always tells me whenever I ask her why she hardly misses seeing a movie that gets released….. “For the production of every movie … crores of rupees and hundreds of days are spent by the Film crew whereas we will be spending just a couple of hours and not more than hundred rupees, what’s wrong in watching it? “ .

So watch it once and if you like it go and watch again and if you don’t like it you have the option of either forgetting it or watching it again to find out why you did not like it.

I have already seen the movie twice and I might watch it couple of times more before the movie completes its run in theatres. And I will definitely buy the DVD whenever it comes into the market to watch some scenes and couple of songs again and again.

Click here for VJ's article on Cricket and Cinema connection

About Vijay Jeedigunta: Vijay Saradhi Jeedigunta is a great fan of Cinema and Cricket and follows them as passoinately as any other Indian in spite of living in US for last 14 years. He Lived in Hyderabad,Graduated from Osmania in Electrical Engg and worked for Allwyn and Dr. Reddy's Labs before moving to USA in 1994. Before going to US he worked on some Doordarshan Documentaries and won the best TV Reviewer award for his Eenadu column called 'Cinnithera Chidvilasam'. He also had small stints as All India Radio's Official Statistician for Reliance Cup and some ODIs and Test matches. He was also a frequent contributor to Deccan Chronicle in their weekly sports page. He lives in Bridgewater, NJ with his wife and children. Currenlty employed by IBM as Managing consultant, he spends his spare time writing for dreamcricket.com. He also participates in a weekly radio show on cricket for EBCRADIO (1170 AM) in New Jersey. To know more about him you can visit my profile on orkut at http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=15920368379975419443 and his cricket blog http://cricketestats.blogspot.com You can send all your inquiries and suggestions to [email protected]