Nani seems to have been consumed by the attraction of the box office more than ever, in recent years. His films reflected equations than storytelling. He finally shed all that weight and did Jersey in the direction of Gowtham Tinnanuri. How the movie is? What is the story all about? Is it worth of all the hype? Let’s discuss…
Plot:: Arjun (Nani) is seen as a loser by everyone around him. He lost his job due to corruption charges but only he believes in his truth. His wife, Sarah (Shraddha Srinath) tries to support the family only on her shoulders and that frustrates her to the core.
One day, Nani (Ronit Kamra) asks for Indian Jersey and to buy him one, Arjun tries hard to find himself. He finally decides to give himself a second chance as a cricketer. Where did that decision lead him to? Watch the movie and know more…
Performances:: Nani as an actor after a long time decided to shed off all the burden as a star and brought out the actor in him. He sunk his teeth into the character and brought out Arjun. He shines as the one who is misunderstood by all when his reality is different. As an actor, he showed great maturity in handling complex scenes.
Shraddha Srinath gave the movie a great balance emotionally. This is a perfect debut as an actor for her in Telugu. Satyaraj is really good in the film.
Ronit Kamra as a child actor is slightly rigid in emotional scenes but he is good scenes that require him to be normal. All the others in the film did their job, well.
Technicalities:: Sanu Varghese gave a soul to the movie with each and every shot. He carefully constructed the shots and gave them the necessary finesse for the story to shine better.
Anirudh Ravichander is an asset to the film and his BGM suits the flow really well. Even his songs don’t really come across as speed breakers.
Navin Nooli as an editor did work better during the first hour of the film than the second one. He should have spent some more time on the cut to not let such lapses in flow occur.
Gowtham Tinnanuri as a writer brought out authenticity to the situations he created. He made a lot of effort to create a world that is believable and realistic. Bringing out the 1996 period without deviating into from the story is great. His passion is visible in each frame and also in every shot, he tried to fill them with nostalgic elements. His character arcs and screenplay work really well for the story as if every braid in the necklace carefully placed together with a lot of care.
But his screenplay does have issues as it tries to dwell more into the drama part in the second half. It slows the movie but then with the game parts and the last twist, he satisfies us completely.
Analysis:: The greatest compliment any storyteller can receive is that the story of the film shines more than anything else. When other techniques shine more than the storytelling, that is a failure for any technician. Gowtham Tinnanuri with this film is able to shine as a filmmaker and storyteller as well. He gave the story ample time to grow on the audiences and also gave characters, the reasons to gain our attention.
The movie works more because of the passion of the makers than the story. We did see such stories before in Chak De India and several other films. But this story tries to keep everything real and grounded. Even actors respond to it in the same way. This is a movie that no one should miss.
Rating : 3.5/5
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