Samuthirakani’s Janda Pai Kapiraju (2015) Movie Review
Movie Review: Janda Pai Kapiraju
Star cast: Nani, Vennala Kishore, Amala Paul, Nassar, Chandra Mohan, Sharath Kumar, Ragini Dwivedi
Music Director: G V Prakash Kumar
Director: Samuthirakani
Censor Certificate: UA
Runtime: 149 Minutes
Aravind (Nani), is a well- schooled guy who has been brought up in an Gurukulam in such an atmosphere where he is been taught only good moral values and how well a person should be disciplined and sincere, basically a moralist for rules that even the slenderest deviance from the law or responsibility by others sends him into convulsions of rage. He is a citizen of incorruptible patriotism. He doesn’t want to talk through a traffic policeman and ends up with terrible experience. Indumathi (Amala Paul) gets impressed by Aravind’s attitude but wants him to change a little to live a peaceful life. After an unfortunate incident, he realizes a corrupt government system prevalent in the society and hence he is very determined to alter this political system by taking the law into his hands and wants to confront the criminals with the help of his friends. And plan to bring out the scam to the people through Television media. Due to higher pressures to stop the live telecast about scam, and they form a people’s court files the 147 person’s cases. Now the antagonists form a group and pen something evil to Aravind. Now how did Aravind achieve his goals and succeeds forms the rest of the story which is highly predictable and one of the most tried and tested subject.
In the performances side, Nani plays the double role for the first time in his career and he did a tremendous job in handling both the characters. As Aravind, Nani a sort of personated the primitive and rule enduring Ramanujam in Apparichithudu. The dialogue delivery, the changeover shown in the second half, packs a punch. Amala Paul looks pretty and petite and has a very limited yet substantial character. The second female lead Ragini Diwedi is just limited to 2-3 sequences and a song. Veteran actor Sarath Kumar makes a short appearance as a special officer to catch Aravind. Vennela Kishore comedy works in parts. Shiva Balaji, Tanikella Bharini, Nasser, Chandra Mohan and Anil Murali were satisfying in their respective roles.
Jenda Pai Kapiraju is Nani’s long pending movie due for release. Movie is an extremely ambitious drama that aims cover what’s wrong with our corrupt society. The story and screenplay have been penned by Samuthirakani and they are both half baked. The theme of the film is neither fresh nor different the underlying aspect of movies where the agonist peruses his own path that is not entirely legit in order to erase corruption from society. Problem with Jenda Pai Kapiraju is narration begins on too predictable note with some intruding songs, which do nothing but to hamper the flow of the story. In the midst of the pre-interval one starts drawing comparisons with films like Bharatheeyudu, Apparichithudu, Tagore etc. The major drawback of the film is that it movies at such leisurely pace that it tests the patience of the audience. If the message is not heartwarming the issues raises and solution aren’t of the kind which would make the audience pray for in a message oriented film. Similarly the climax doesn’t have the emotional appeal it ought to have. The issues raised are far from exciting, comedy is blatant by its absence, emotions are very few and the drama is very dry. Director even takes around 40 minutes to establish Aravind’s character but he could have easily cut short the thingy by 15 minutes. Samuthirakani gives a middling 1st half with some meaningful lines and then wonder what goes wrong, he fails to impress wherein the post intermission session and it turns out to be mediocre with bad execution and deviates completely from the main plot which is a big letdown. Then there is no reason given about why Khanan suddenly turns good, After Aravind tells the truth at the court even then he gets arrested by the police instead of corrupt people. Director Samuthirakani, riddled by a losing script, does a reasonable job as he fails in making the narrative engaging and dramatic enough. As a result, even though the film’s running time is less than 150 minutes it seems much longer than that. The Thelisinadhi song is very good. The other songs are average and do not add much value to the narrative. Sukumar – Jeevan’s cinematography is good. The highway action scene could have been handled in a better way. The movie definitely deserved a sharper edit. Dialogues by Sashank Vennalaganti are okay. Production values of Vasan Visual Ventures are fine.
Everything about Nani’s Jenda Pai Kapiraju is text book and conventional which makes the film a haul, and with the noble aims that drives the plot it winds up being too preachy and a bore. The message is jaded and dated, movie bears no shock value nor emotional connect and the film dweebs to a dead halt. Overall, JPK can be watched for the laudable performance by Nani, other than that nothing works in the favor of this film.
Survi Review: 2/5
Theatrical Trailer:
super hit