Sunil's Jakkanna - Movie Review

Story:

As the film begins, a school teacher (Nagineedu) is telling children about the virtues of giving back to those who have helped even once. A child takes it seriously and grows up to a weird do-gooder called Ganesh aka Jakkanna. Years later, one Bairagi (Kabir Dulhan Singh), whom nobody has seen even though he has cleaned up the mess created by bloody gangsters like Dega like a one-man army in Vijayawada, is wanted by Ganesh. 

In finding Bairagi's whereabouts, Ganesh comes in touch with Bairagi's arch rival, late Dega's seething-with-rage son.  If this is Ganesh's secret life, he fakes it and behaves like a meek office boy in front of Sapthagiri, a duplicate martial arts trainer. As the film progresses, the suspense over Ganesh's motives behind tracing out Bairagi and him concealing his exceptional fighting skills remain a question mark.  Unfortunately so, this suspense tests the audience's patience as the director is content with introducing irrelevant characters to keep the second half on life support.

Analysis:

Vamshi Krishna Akella of 'Raksha' fame has an interesting point at hand. He was, however, limited by the demands of what is (believed to be) in currency, or perhaps other factors like the star cast he got to do the film. There is good potential in the story line to be made into a gripping drama in the second.  

One hope after another is dashed as one comedian after another gets a larger-than-expected space. Prudhvi, once again, does done to death parody. Balakrishna and Pawan Kalyan are taken care of, Manchu Manoj is taken care of (by Sunil himself), 'Bhale Bhale Mogadivoy' is taken care of (by Sapthagiri), Chiranjeevi's superstardom is capitalized (through Ashish Vidhyarthi, who breaks into the 'Veena' step from 'Indra') - everyone and everything that needs to be reminded are reminded. Yes, the film also pays a blink-and-you-will-miss-it tribute to Rajamouli.

As for the emotional connect, the director can't care less here. Even in the climax, you have Kabir Dulhan Singh trying to evoke laughter by pleading Sunil not to pay back to him anymore.  It's that compulsive. There is a mention of a "complex network" that Bairagi has, but there is no clue about it.  

While there was enough space for both Sunil and Kabir's characters to be at par, the director instead overindulges Sunil to the exclusion of the latter.  In effect, you have at least two unwelcome (but well-shot) songs, but no much detailing of Kabir's character.  The characterization of Kabir is at best sketchy and at worse, half-hearted.

Prudhvi as CI Katappa always on the verge to arrest Kabir, is routine. His spoofs are unwelcome. Sapthagiri was never so jaded, although the look is quirky. Comedian Sathya, spoofing Sai Kumar's 'Police Story' act is OK. Raghu Karamanchi, Nagineedu and others pass muster.

Sunil needs to evolve as an actor. He is there where Rajamouli left him years ago. What is the point in someone comparing him to a cowboy?  What is the point in someone bursting on the scene to talk about his six pack abs past?  Too much, isn't it? Sunil dances well in a couple of songs (especially 'Andala tannulu'), but otherwise, all that he does is repeat his previous acts.  

Kabir is not a misfit, but he could have been better.  Mannara Chopra gets it bad with her re-launch. She is too non-Telugu in her looks. Dinesh's music and the cinematographer's work don't redeem the film either.  

Bottomline: Lousy filmmaking at its peak as 'Jakkanna' offers nothing new in terms of comedy, narration. Although the are some gags in the second half, rest of the movie tests the patience. The movie is like express of rhyme dialogues as each character in the movie utters prasa sentence every time. Like the silly dialogues, the movie doesn't make any sense. Except for few gags, total movie is letdown.