Panjaa Movie Review

Behind the Movie Panjaa: A movie from Pawan Kalyan is always an exciting one for Fans and audience. With too many expectations, today ‘Panjaa’ is released in 1800 screens with stylish director Vishnuvardhan trying his first film in Telugu. Let us see, how great is Pawan’s ‘Punch’?

In the Movie Panjaa: Jai (Pawan Kalyan) is a loyal worker to Mafia Don Bhagawan (Jackie Shroff) operating from Kolkata. More than a servant, Jai is the actual power of Bhagawan. There is also a rival gang in the same business headed by Kulakarni (Atul Kulkarni). With war of domination continuing between two groups, here comes Munna (Adavi Sesh), the Psycho son of Bhagawan. On the other side, Jai falls in love with cute girl Sandhya (Sarah Jane Dias).

With in no time, Munna shows his insane attitude on Jai’s club dancer cum childhood friend Jahnavi (Anjalai Lavania) and faithful worker Sabhapathi (Paruchuri Venkateshwara Rao). In a mentally estranged condition, Munna kills Jahnavi and Kulakarni’s son before getting died in the hands of Jai. 

In order to keep away from these Mafia activities, Jai goes to Palasa which is the home town of Sandhya. As retaliation, Bhagawan and Kulakarni groups are in search of Jai. What happened later forms rest of the story. Whom did Jai loose…is it his love Sandhya or his obedience to Bhagawan?

Values of the Movie Panjaa: Storyline selected by Vishnuvardhan has two different shades. One is Mafia angle and the other is a Love Story. Narration wise, everything went well till the Interval. There was style and substance with exciting Interval block. Later on Vishnuvardhan failed to keep the momentum going on. His direction missed to raise the enthusiasm in audience resulting in a pale show. Screenplay could have been definitely better. Cinematography of PS Vinod is top notch and it’s the real taste in ‘Panjaa.’ Editing by Sreekar Prasad could have been still sharper with decrease in length of run time. Background of Yuvan was vibrating while songs remained unsatisfactory. Production values of Sanghamitra and ARKA stood high.

Performance wise, this is best show from Pawan in recent times. Without succumbing to any extras, he just followed the character. With a rugged beard through out the film, Pawan is seen in a new style. His mannerisms, body language, simple comedy punches and as usual action sequences are to please his Fans. Next to speak about is Adavi Sesh who played key role in giving a turn to entire story. He has the ease and an artist who is worth to watch in future. Sarah is attractive and curvaceous in traditional attires while Anjali is alluring and sexy in modern skimpy costumes. Comedy wise Brahmanandam as SI Papa Rayudu could not generate enough laughs in second half. Jackie Shroff and Atul Kulkarni were decent. Tanikella played a cunning character. Ali, Sampat, Subba Raju, Jhansi and others were okay.

Out of the Movie Panjaa: Honestly speaking, ‘Panjaa’ isn’t the complete winner as what Pawan Kalyan Fans are expecting from a long time. There are more minuses about the film than pluses. Vishnuvardhan instead of concentrating too much on style, a little concentration should have been diverted on content even. Film is glossy with matchless finishing as cinematography elevated the end product. However this will help in success of a movie only when you have a solid element in story that will incite you. ‘Panjaa’ is deficient exactly on this aspect.

As narration runs in Mafia backdrop, there is excessive usage of Guns and Machine Guns in action episodes which will not augur well for masses. Logical director’s like Vishnuvardhan should not depend upon cinematic liberties of this range. In totality, ‘Panjaa’ would have become a memorable flick in Pawan’s career, if second half stood on equal standards with first half. If anyone has to share the blame for this, then it will be both Pawan and Vishnuvardhan.

Telugu audiences always look for a combo of entertainment mixed with a show of heroism but not just simple technical excellence. Vishnuvardhan has certainly elevated the technical values in movie making but this should not be at the cost of missing delight in watching a cinema. Commercially, ‘Panjaa’ will open grandly with record collections in first week due to Pawan Mania. Sustenance of same is very much questionable.

Cinejosh Verdict of the Movie Panjaa: Again a ‘Weak Punch’ from ‘Power’ Star. 

                                                                                        Reviewed by Srivaas