Puri Jagannadh’s Jyothi Lakshmi (2015) Movie Review

Puri Jagannadh’s Jyothi Lakshmi (2015) Movie Review

Star Cast: Satyadev, Charmme Kaur, Ajay Ghosh, Brahmanandam, Sampoornesh Babu, Satyam Rajesh & Tarzan
Music Composer: Sunil Kashyup
Director: Puri Jagannadh
Editor: S R Sekkhar
Censor Certificate: UA
Runtime: 133.33 Minutes

Coming to the story of the movie, Jyothi Lakshmi (Charmme) is a really high class call girl. She lives in brothel house on her terms and doesn’t really worry about what others think about this profession. One fine night, she accidently meets with Satya (Satyadev) in the brothel. From the first moments Satya only shows his true love towards Jyothi Lakshmi rather than seeing her as a prostitution. Satya in a short time proposes his true love to Jyothi and wanna take her out of Narayan Patwari’s (Ajay Ghosh) brothel house. Jyothi runs away with Satya’s and marries him with the help of a Police Officer. But Narayan Patwari and gang starts going behind Satya. Will Satya survive Manju’s (Tarzan) blow? What goes on with Jyothi Lakshmi? For that complete story you have to watch the film on screen.

What one expects most from a movie like JyothiLakshmi in strong performances. One marvels why is Satyadev is not seen more often on the Telugu silver screen, he does his part with poise. His character wasn’t properly inked, but he managed to pull it off with honest performance. First we have an actor like Charmme Kaur who’s been known earlier for her truly path breaking movies like Anukokunda Oka Roju, in which she really did display talent and great screen presence. Then there is the movie’s USP namely the lead character Jyothi Lakshmi, the prostitute with golden heart storyline. The portrayal of the Prostitute is superb, to say the least. She gives a reeling performance though at times she goes over board at times. Her looks, expressions and body language are typical of those of a professional prostitute. And the character is well nuanced. There have been attempts on comedy lead by Brahmanandam, Sampoornesh Babu, Satyam Ragesh and Uttej providing the rear guard. Needless to say it looks completely out of place. Ajay Ghosh & Tarzan are fine in their roles.

Jyothi Lakshmi is focused on the life of a high class prostitute, but never delves deep enough into her life and as a result, her anguish doesn’t affect the viewer much.  The storyline looks silly, a prostitute after getting married single handedly wipes out brothel houses. But the issues could have narrated in a proper way, if someone revealed lead pair feelings at the right time and the director could have told the viewer’s something meaningful instead. With too many relatively small issues narrated simultaneously, the focus tends to drift away all too often. Well, it could also have been intentionally, as there is no real story worth mentioning in the whole film. In all fairness the film has some sincerity that has gone into its making but its turns out to be lengthy even at around 2 hours and 13 minutes from sentiments, confusion, insecurity, fights, every formula in the book has been used in a good measure here.

The highlight of the film could be the visuals by P G Vindha and to a certain extent the music by Sunil Kashyup. Even in these days when mindsets and lifestyles have taken a complete change from the days when he wrote the script, the inimitable Puri Jagannadh has succeeded in presenting the story in a puri-sh tone. Dialogues by Puri are good in parts, dialogues like; Aadadi prostitution ki vasthundi ante kaaram society fail avvadame; Condom ki Thali ki competition pettodhu; Devudu kuda aadadi ante chulakanna anduke Moggalane kannadu aadalani kanaledhu.. etc deserves some applause.  Editing by S R Sekhar editing could have applied his scissors more sharply. Production Values Charmme Kaur presents are good.

Jyothi Lakshmi is movie which doesn’t full fill the scope of its theme. Also the subject will be seen by some groups as it’s controversial. There is a pretty serious storyline looks into some idealistic mindsets that find it difficult to digest the effects of revolution. But sadly Jyothi Lakshmi neither gets deep into the minds of the characters nor succeeds in narrating the story amidst of sex racket, in a convincing way. All in all, Jyothi Lakshmi coupled with very narrow cross section of the viewers who will accept this kind of motifs, stacks are odd against the film.

Survi Review: 2/5