One of the most impressive aspects of Dijo Jose Antony's Jana Gana Mana is how it maintains a feeling of panic throughout (close to three hours). It's like a prolonged suspense thriller's third act. A grave incident has already occurred when it opens. Emotions are already at a fever pitch. It presents you with what passes for truth, and for a time, you believe it. But who is selling you their version of the truth? Is it the media's, cops', or lawyers' fault?
Your perspectives begin to shift gradually as a barrister, aravind Swaminathan (Prithviraj Sukumaran), appears in court and begins busting one 'truth' after another. Jana Gana Mana functions similarly to a Rubik's cube, with the 'true' combination changing every few minutes. It takes a Rashomon-style approach to finding the truth while avoiding the screenplay structure of the akira Kurosawa masterpiece. The fact that Jana Gana Mana feels like three or four movies packed into one is another amazing feature. As each layer is undone, one can envision the film going off on all kinds of tangents. That hasn't happened to me in a malayalam film in a long time.
After the huge success of Driving Licence, prithviraj and Suraj Venjaramoodu reunite in Jana Gana Mana. After that, you naturally expect amazing things from every film starring them. And Jana Gana Mana does not let you down. I'm not sure it's possible to claim which film is superior to the other. Both actors perform to the audience's expectations. In Jana Gana Mana, their characteristics are vastly different from those in Driving Licence.
Is it necessary for me to mention Suraj's incredible range at this point? Suraj's police character, Sajjan Kumar, is assigned to contain a violent JNU-style situation at a prominent university in karnataka during the first hour. I'm not getting into all of the spoiler-y bits because this film is jam-packed with them. I can't imagine of anyone better than prithviraj to deliver searing sentences that resound over the courtroom walls and everyone in the movie theatre. shammi Thilakan, on the other hand, appears to enjoy her role as a competitor litigator. He is, without a doubt, the film's principal source of hilarity — and I don't mean the inadvertent variety.
Jana Gana Mana has some theatrical and loud moments, but why should one expect it to have the feel of a Dileesh Pothan or rajeev Ravi film? Jana Gana Mana is a big-budget, mass-appeal entertainer in the manner of Renji Panicker's political thrillers for shaji kailas in the early 1990s or Dennis Joseph's work for joshiy or Thampi Kannanthanam in the 1980s.
Your perspectives begin to shift gradually as a barrister, aravind Swaminathan (Prithviraj Sukumaran), appears in court and begins busting one 'truth' after another. Jana Gana Mana functions similarly to a Rubik's cube, with the 'true' combination changing every few minutes. It takes a Rashomon-style approach to finding the truth while avoiding the screenplay structure of the akira Kurosawa masterpiece. The fact that Jana Gana Mana feels like three or four movies packed into one is another amazing feature. As each layer is undone, one can envision the film going off on all kinds of tangents. That hasn't happened to me in a malayalam film in a long time.
After the huge success of Driving Licence, prithviraj and Suraj Venjaramoodu reunite in Jana Gana Mana. After that, you naturally expect amazing things from every film starring them. And Jana Gana Mana does not let you down. I'm not sure it's possible to claim which film is superior to the other. Both actors perform to the audience's expectations. In Jana Gana Mana, their characteristics are vastly different from those in Driving Licence.
Is it necessary for me to mention Suraj's incredible range at this point? Suraj's police character, Sajjan Kumar, is assigned to contain a violent JNU-style situation at a prominent university in karnataka during the first hour. I'm not getting into all of the spoiler-y bits because this film is jam-packed with them. I can't imagine of anyone better than prithviraj to deliver searing sentences that resound over the courtroom walls and everyone in the movie theatre. shammi Thilakan, on the other hand, appears to enjoy her role as a competitor litigator. He is, without a doubt, the film's principal source of hilarity — and I don't mean the inadvertent variety.
Jana Gana Mana has some theatrical and loud moments, but why should one expect it to have the feel of a Dileesh Pothan or rajeev Ravi film? Jana Gana Mana is a big-budget, mass-appeal entertainer in the manner of Renji Panicker's political thrillers for shaji kailas in the early 1990s or Dennis Joseph's work for joshiy or Thampi Kannanthanam in the 1980s.
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