Review: 'Jabardasth' (Telugu) is little senti, more mental

Film: Jabardasth (Telugu)
Director: Nandini Reddy
Cast: Siddharth, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Nithya Menen, Sayaji Shinde, Srihari
Rating:***

It’s a Tollywood movie made Hollywood style” says the voiceover in a fake American accent right at the beginning, setting the tone for what you know is going be an insane rom-com.

The story starts off with Siddharth (as Byarraju) in a burqa with Bihar bhai’s (Sayaji Shinde) goons chasing him. The reason why they’re chasing him is narrated through a full-on kitschy song, introducing Raju as a con man who’s wanted in      some 40-plus cases. The scene then shifts to Hyderabad as Raju moves to the city looking for work and even as you wonder what scam he’s got up his sleeve, enters Shreya (Samantha) who has plans to start a business in wedding planning. And what do you know, the two after a turn of events end up partnering and begin an event management company.

It doesn’t take too much guessing to know the movie finds its inspiration from Band, Baaja, Baaraat (BBB). Stripped to its bare essentials, the movie is a lot like the Hindi one, but—and it’s a big but — Jabardasth is what you get when you take BBB and turn it on its head.  And director Nandini Reddy has pulled all the stops in making it as mental as she could make it. First, there’s a hero who barely knows any English, a heroine who’s quite the drama queen, an ensemble cast that includes a con woman (Nithya Menen), a blundering gangleader, an over-the-top, gun toting don (Srihari), a drunken electrician (Thagubothu Ramesh), two effeminate dance masters and a few funny chase sequences... and Jabardasth ends up as a movie that tries, and to an extent, succeeds in giving you your ‘lol’ moments.

The performances are what hold the movie together, ensuring it doesn’t fall slam dunk on its over-the-top, flimsy plot. Siddharth takes the cake here. The actor manages to quite convincingly pull off the role of a street smart guy and the scenes where he blunders around with broken English especially will have you laughing. Samantha is her usual self and does an okay job, but it is Nithya Menen, who lifts up the scenes in the brief time she is around.

So does Jabardasth live up to its name? Not quite. But if you were looking for a no-brainer movie to laugh your worries out, this one fits the bill.