Jabardasth

Story: Bokka Bairraju (Siddharth) is an inscrutable rascal. Shreya (Samantha) is a suave urban girl who dreams of becoming a wedding planner. The two join hands to float an event management company. Shreya develops feelings for Bairraju, but he just can’t think beyond getting rich, so the two fall apart. But they are forced to plan one final wedding together.

Movie Review: We’ll begin with a word of advice. If you’ve seen Band Baaja Baaraat, this one might seem like a much-dumbed-down Tollywood adaptation – remake is more like it actually, but since the filmmakers didn’t tell us so, we’ll trust their integrity and stick to adaptation for now – of the Ranveer-Anushka starrer. As long as you don’t expect this movie to match the chutzpah of the original, you’ll be able to see the funny side of it all. Can’t help wondering had this movie been made first, would it still have inspired BBB? We’re afraid not.

Though the elements are all the same, the nuances are different. The feisty Punjabi kudi, Shruti Kakkar was the stand out character in the original, this one is centered on Bairraju, an incorrigible con guy with a penchant for talking in English, despite not knowing a word of it. His speech is a mish mash of chaste Telugu with smatterings of English. Amma dini mother. . .You just dobbeyi. . .is how he swears. He gate crashes into wedding parties, borrows money from people only to disappear and even cons people off their money in the pretext of introducing them to Bruce Lee (yes the long dead Bruce Lee) or promising to marry someone.

This must easily be Siddharth’s most over the top act ever (not that there is much to chose from), and he seems to have pulled out all the plugs to get into this super massy character who speaks with a forced accent. But as it turns out he’s at his best in situations he’s not trying so hard. Samantha is confined to playing second fiddle to Siddharth and doesn’t really get to really test her comic side. As a result there isn’t so much of chemistry on display.

Nithya Menen steals the show with her delightful cameo, playing a con woman. The humor is completely of the slap-stick variety with a barrage of comic acts. Srihari (playing a Malasia based don), Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam (plays a dainty dance guru), Thagubothu Ramesh (a heartbroken alcoholic), Telangana Sakunthala(plays a loud mouthed money lender), Shayaji Shinde (playing a Bihari who can’t speak a word of Telugu) and Vennela Kishore (plays a funny sounding filmmaker) provide some much needed chuckles with their histrionics.

The music is passable as is the cinematography. It’s a movie that has it’s moments but they are too far and few in between.

Tip Off: It’s just a little too over the top, best enjoyed with a gang of boisterous boys who can crack up no matter what’s playing onscreen.