Movie: Jump Jilani
Director: E. Satti Babu
Cast: Allari Naresh, Isha Chawla, Swati Deekshith, Raghu Babu, Posani Krishna Murali
Rating: *
What’s Allari Naresh really trying to do with Jump Jilani ? For those who don’t get it, the double role is also a hint at the impact. There’s a below the belt touch to what could have been passed as a generic nonsensical fare . Vulgarity is sprinkled into the exercise with more freedom now. People are so excited to speak and a take a dig at each other that there’s not much time permitted to construct a sequence. As per all inherent indications suggested by the maker E Satti Babu, even EVV Sathyanarayana wouldn’t have been any less embarrassed than the shocked viewer to have been gifted such a paltry homage to his brand of comedy. This time, it’s a remake of a successful Tamil film Kalakalappu. So, what do we get ? Except for Brahmanandam, most of the comedians are on-board to give it a regional factionist spin that Seema Sastri and Seema Tapakai did with a better ease.
It’s old-school humor all around. There’s a loss-embracing hotel that a grandfather, here Kota Srinivasa Rao, wants to revive. He places all his trust on one of the less-notorious grandsons. A new health-officer, a lady who flaunts her waist more than her authority lands up in his town. He is flattered by her presence, woos her and the problem is almost solved, you imagine. Better don’t. A consanguineous cousin is feeling left-behind, so another of his jailed grandson enters the scene to make the arc feel complete. Once again, you’re fooled if you sense an ending approaching your way. The director welcomes at least a dozen characters to complicate the mess in the latter half, of whom the most prominent is Posani.
You don’t curse logic in a comedy film where a doctor talks about a bluray scan just to sound similar to an X-ray. There’s a limit to loudness in an exaggerated comic-caper which Jump Jilani consistently abuses. The need for anything visual is totally undermined for you know that the screen would have been equally unapologetic had the audio tape of the same been played. Having not watched the original may sound a relieving thought for a while as you at least know what to expect watching it as another Allari Naresh outing, which closely belongs to the school of Maruthi for the direct sexual references.
Commercial films over the years are unabashed to showcase women or even men as lust-driven objects and market their works as family entertainers. The liberty is stretched so much that a song has the actors labelling dishes after Tamanna (Tandoori), Aishwarya Rai (Bajji) and Shruti Hassan (soup). This brand of chauvinism is something that a Telugu cinema viewer is being fed regularly . The more you consume this as slapstick entertainment, the worse you are to see comparisons like these in the times ahead. Adding to that, Jump Jilani makes maximal mockery of Pawan Kalyan, Mahesh Babu, NTR’s dialogues that they wouldn’t mind registering a patent to the lines they are to utter in their upcoming films. Is this now supposed to be a crowd-pulling show-reel ? The choice is yours. You have enough independence to laugh this out.
Review by Srivathsan N. First published in Cinegoer.net
