Jamba Lakidi Pamba - Movie Review

Friday, June 22, 2018 - 15:30
Jamba Lakidi Pamba (2018)
Cast & Crew: 

Film: Jamba Lakidi Pamba
Cast: Srinivasa Reddy, Siddhi Idnani, Vennela Kishore, Posani, Hari Teja, Tanikella, Satyam Rajesh , Dhanraj, Shakalaka Shankar, Jayaprakash Reddy, Sudha and others
Music: Gopi Sunder
Cinematography: Satish Mutyala
Editor: Thammi Raju
Banner: Shivam Celluliods
Producers: Ravi, Jojo Jose, N Srinivasa Reddy
Written and direction: J.B. Murali Krishna
Release date: June 22, 2018

 

'Jamba Lakidi Pamba', starring Srinivas Reddy and Siddhi Idnani as a married couple, is directed by JB Murali Krishna.  The film hit the screens this Friday. Let's find out what works and what doesn't.  

Story:
Varun (Srinivasa Reddy) and Pallavi (Siddhi Idnani) are a newly-married couple who have relationship issues. If the wife finds her husband too uninvolved and even suspects that he has an affair with his colleague Divya (Himaja), the husband finds her a tough nut.They approach Posani Krishna Murali, an efficient lawyer who takes pleasure in securing divorces for couples, for divorce.  But fate has other plans. The lawyer dies in an accident and comes back as a ghost. He has to convince the couple to patch-up for his own self-interest.

But the differences between the husband and the wife continue to only grow. This is when Posani's character decides to play havoc with the psychology of the couple. Body-swapping follows. Varun assumes Pallavi's body, Pallavi assumes her husband's body. Will this help them in making peace eventually?

Analysis:

While the concept of body-swapping is not routine, the essence of J B Muralikrishna's 'Jamba Lakidi Pamba' is totally underdeveloped. If anything, body-swapping is a mere excuse for routine comedy.

When a wife enters the body of a male person and a husband gets into a female body, you expect a catharsis happening at a psychological level. That's what Posani's ghost character expects to happen. But what follows is an absurd drama where Srinivas Reddy is content with behaving like a gay, a caricature. Gays are stereotyped in our movies and they are shown to have a certain variety of body language. Srinivas Reddy seems to have taken their performances as a reference in playing this inconsistently written segment.

Director JB Murali Krishna (Manu) gives no space for emotions when the couple goes through the shocking, unexpected change.  Bra comedy, toilet joke... this is what you give the audience when a fighting couple is destined by God to go through body swapping?

It becomes preachy in the climax when a middle-aged couple is seen showing love for each other (much like in "Pellaina Kothalo') Tanikella Bharani (as Srinivas Reddy's father) goes berserk when he starts suspecting that his son is an impotent guy.

Either every character (including the maid at the house, played by Hariteja) over-emotes or everybody is normal about everything abnormal happening to them and around them in the film.

In an outlandish environment like this, it would be a mistake to expect the clash between the hero and the heroine to be substantial. At no point in the film do their quarrels have any weight, any substance, and any seriousness. Since time immemorial, the filmi wife suspects her filmi hubby to be in an illicit affair. In this film, the suspected girlfriend is played by Himaja, who inexplicably behaves like a mistress in the second half just so that the heroine becomes all the more suspicious.

As said before, Srinivas Reddy's unrealistic body language is a huge miss. Siddhi Idnani delivers a few hits decent notes and she is at least better compared to others. Posani, Vennela Kishore, Suman, Tanikella Bharani, Jayaprakash Reddy, Raghu Babu, Himaja and others are passable.

Gopi Sundar's music is soulless. The director has used the theme of 'Dating the Enemy' (1996) and other flicks like 'Screwed Up' but he has not able to generate comedy in this supposedly comedy film. The film has used the title of EVV's old hit movie but has not taken inspiration from it regarding comedy.

Bottomline:'Jamba Lakidi Pamba' builds an outdated narrative around the idea of body-swapping. There is no consistency.  There are no touching emotions.

Reviewed by: 
Vishwanath V
Rating: 
2/5