Nandini Reddy’s Jabardasth (2013) Movie Review

Director Nandini Reddy has proved that even now women can make one of the best movies, with the film Ala modalaindi. The movie released as a small budget film but made big time money for the film maker. After more than two years gap, Nandini Reddy is coming up with another love entertainer Jabardasth starring Siddharth and Samantha in the lead roles.

A lot of expectations were on ‘Jabardasthh’ due to pairing of Siddharth-Samantha and Nandini Reddy (Ala Modalaindhi fame) factor. Jabardasth is the story of two friends, Byreraju (Siddharth) and Shreya (Samantha), who start a business of Event planning in partnership. Making humble beginnings, they graduate to bigger events and soon, their company, Shreyas Media, becomes a name to reckon with. Their busy work schedules see them spending a good part of their working hours in each other’s company. Shreya falls in love with Byreraju. Byreraju feels money is only thing that keeps them both together.

Seeing Byreraju’s casual attitude, Shreya feels frustrated. Tensions between Shreya and Byreraju build up and ultimately lead to the partnership being dissolved. Byreraju now starts his own business of wedding planning with Saraswathi (Nithya Menon) even Shreya continues as the owner of Shreyas Media. Both of them fail in their respective businesses as they are both incomplete without the other. Their employees try to bring the two of them together but both are adamant.

Then, a Don, Javed Bhai (Srihari), calls both of them to jointly plan the wedding of his sister. They refuse to join forces but give in ultimately. While planning this wedding, they realize how good they are together. Byreraju also learns that Shreya is getting married. Does Shreya heed Byreraju’s advice? Does Byreraju understand Shreya’s feelings for him? Will Shreyas Media continue their business?  The rest of the events form the crux of the story.

It’s nice to see Siddharth on screen after a gap of almost a year. He performed exactly as per the requirements of the character. Samantha is charismatic in looks department and is adequate in histrionics aspect. Nitya Menon is apt in her own way. Thagubothu Ramesh provided some good laughs. Srihari is adequate. He tried imitate king style dialogue delivery during comedy scenes in this film. Dharmavarapu Subramanyam played a comedy oriented role as a Dance Master. Actor Sunil given introduction voice over to actor Siddharth. Prince is okay with his cameo.

Jabardasth is a free make of director Maneesh Sharma’s Hindi film Band Baaja Baaraat that became a huge hit and catapulted actor Ranveer Singh into the one of the top raising star league. The original Hindi film, which was released two years ago, not only suited the tastes of Hindi audiences but also had some good feel and romance. But Nandini Reddy has tried to present this film as a family entertainer. Director failed to get the emotions right in order to establish the central point of the film in an effective way. As a result, the feel found in the Hindi film is absent here. Jabardasth is certainly not a patch on the original.

Music by Thaman is rattling. The picturization of Arere and Meghamala are good on screen. Dialogues are mediocre. Cinematography is neat. Production values by Sri Sai Ganesh Productions banner are good.

Jabardasth has a funny premise for sure but the problem is that it hasn’t been narrated in an attractive manner. Nandini Reddy had shown promise with her earlier movie, Ala Modalaindi, but she loses her ground this time around.

Theatrical Trailer: