Duvvada Jagannadham

I met a vigilante who lives two lives, as a Brahmin Cook when he ties a rudraksha to his neck and DJ, after he removes it. He tries to balance the evil in the society with his good aggressive nature and a police constable helps him in doing so. Well, as DJ he believes in cleaning the society while as Duvvada Jagannadam he believes in cooking a tasty meal. On the whole, we found knowing him a good enough time pass but his story did not inspire us much.

Plot : From a young age, Duvvada Jagannadam (All Arjun) is highly aggressive and his highly conservative parents want him to learn Vedam as any other Brahmin in their Agraharam and be a good non-violent cook. But his aggression finds a way to lash out on the goons of the society with the help of a police constable (Murali Sharma).

DJ has friends from his Satyanarayanapuram Agraharam who help him in the process and also few Police constables form his team. He falls in love with Pooja (Pooja Hegde) but she rejects him on the pretext of his work and social status. Royyala Naidu (Rao Ramesh) cheats many middle-class people with a real estate company Agro Diamond for 9000 crores. DJ takes up his case and the cat and mouse game ensues. Who will win the game and how? Watch it on screen ..

Performances : Allu Arjun tries hard to make the scenes work with his usual energy but he doesn’t get required support from the Harish Shankar. He dances well, fights ferociously and deliver the punches stylishly, still we don’t find them entertaining enough to watch the movie and feel excited. All his efforts to deliver a good performance as Duvvada Jagannadam go in vain.

Pooja Hegde performs actively in the movie. She resorts to skin show more in this movie than her previous ones and her character fails to deliver on the performance front as she hardly gets one or two scenes to shine.

Tanikella Bharani, Murali Sharma, Pavitra lokesh, Sivannarayana Naripeddi, Ragini get one odd moment to shine but that doesn’t help the movie in any case. Vennela Kishore who is on a roll saving the movies with his performance, is wasted in this movie.

We feel bad for Rao Ramesh and Subbaraju as they are reduced to buffoonery in the movie. The characters they play are highly routine and not even in one sequence we feel the worth of their talent.

Technicalities : Story, Screenplay written by Harish Shankar, Satish Vegnesna and Ramesh Reddy feel too old for an contemporary entertainer. None of the sequences have the depth or required pep to make us go crazy for the action or punch dialogues. We can’t connect with the main character rather than feel like watching a popular mass hero in yet another commercial film that is inspired from many movies.

Ayananka Bose’s camera tries to provide a character to the proceedings but none of his color tones work as the scenes are not up to the mark. We feel everything is dull in few scenes still his camera work raises it’s level once there is a worthy sequence. Script undermines his efforts too.

Editing by Chota K Prasad should be awarded for not working right. He tries hard to not put any effort in removing the unwanted scenes and shots. His cuts are routine and the runtime of 156 minutes is criminal for such a film.

Music By Devi Sri Prasad doesn’t inspire us to dance in the theatre. His tunes are highly routine and except for DJ Saranam Baje Baje all are just routine dance for this beat please kind of songs. They don’t have any pep and also the BGM doesn’t elevate any scene in the movie.

Director Harish Shankar is highly lazy with his script and direction as well. He has a good producer and fine leading actor but he fails to impress audience with a good script and engaging sequences. His action episodes too doesn’t have any innovation and feel highly routine. The many inspirations that Harish Shankar took from the past blockbusters are visible and we can’t help but notice them even if we don’t try much.

Analysis : Harish Shankar is the major culprit in this movie. Even though he had everything at his disposal he made a lazy effort to use them and one feels he should have tried to create at least something innovative like he did in his Gabbar Singh. Well, with this movie we feel his Gabbar Singh is a one-time wonder and Duvvada Jagannadam can be termed as a lost opportunity for the director and the entire team involved as well. This film doesn’t have enough to entertain you unless you like to see Allu Arjun on screen despite of the story.

Rating : 2/5

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