Jana Gana Mana

The characters in this film are solid, each and everyone nailed it to the core. The first half starts a bit confusing but later it catches up the pace once Suraj appears on the screen, to an extent he stole the show with a decent interval bang. The second half of the film is terrific, Prithviraj was just tremendous. The last 45 minutes of the movie are an absolute treat with lots of enormous twists and turns. More than all that this film discusses the current political situation in India and most events that take place in this movie is based on true incidents. A film that I personally believe that should be watched at least once.

The second film by Dijo Jose Antony and he has improved a lot. But one of the things that can be noticed in his first feature Queen itself is that he wants to talk about important things and let the emotion of it spread to the audience and it should be conveyed to every single one of them. He's ready to sacrifice some logic and reality for these emotions. He makes it a point to present these issues on the nose and as dramatic as possible. Queen became a big commercial success for such a small movie even though the critics saw all the problems that were definitely in it. But still, it can't be denied how successful it was at what it set out to be.

Jana Gana Mana works very similarly in that regard. There are many points in the film which are exaggerated just for the dramatic effect and unless you are able to be accepting the emotional side and not the real world logic, especially in the courtroom scenes, the movie will be a disappointment.

Despite all these issues, the movie is grounded in almost every other aspect. The top-notch acting, specifically by the two leads and the plot itself makes it a compelling watch. Touching upon all the important issues faced by the common people in the country, touching too many nerves due to which the movie ended up banned in a lot of North Indian states, the movie is a bold statement about the state of the country.

The way the movie moved through the two protagonists through the two halves was very cleverly done so that the paradigm shift really allows the audience to see the broader picture. The way they made the audience root for things is really commendable as it shows exactly how the world works and why it shouldn't be that way. The movie is made in a way so that its messages can be reached everywhere and also makes sure to teach them to be able to question things. For a movie that is gonna be labelled as something that doesn't consider the audience intelligent enough to comprehend everything unless spelt out, it makes the exact case of why the audience around the world isn't really collectively intelligent and even those who ask for the intelligent narration won't be able to deny those facts.

There would be a kind of hate that would be easily faced by this movie. The way the movie dealt with those political aspects is enough for the filmmakers to be proud about it due to the truth in the fiction.

The movie discussed many relevant and real issues of present day India directly and indirectly. Prithviraj comes back with a strong performance after a short break along with the always consistent Suraj. The dialogue delivery in court scenes were good enough to have goosebumps again and again. A must watch movie.

Powerful script make movies powerful , this one is finest example in that list.

Sharpest dialogues , remarkable direction and collective performances , each and every actors and actress show their worth Vincy Aloshious , shari , mamtamohandas and many new comers all did a fantastic job ,excellent direction by Dijo Jose Antony

Suraj Venjaramoodu is brilliant ,outstanding performance and Prithviraj Sukumaran is awesome , tremendous performance !

Technical side is top notch ,back ground score is effective and songs are good !

Editing is outstanding !

And many may say first half is slow and compare to second and all ,i would say , see the whole picture and review as whole movie , for me first half of this one is the base or root of what comes later !

Over all JanaGanaMana is emotional ,social- political and Dialogue driven thought provoking movie to enjoy it in theater !

And super excited for the 2'nd part !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And my rating is 9.4 i will watch it again.

Watched JGM on Netflix in orig. Malayalam w/Eng. Subs. Several audio portions are in multiple languages like Tamil / English / Kannada.

10 Stars for the important, disturbing mainstream current issues that are "loudly" propounded by Prithviraj as Adv. Aravind in the courtroom scenes ... with the 7-8 star rider that the courtroom scenes are far removed from actual courtroom reality! This is not important if you watch the film as fiction as indeed the Disclaimer proclaims. Nowadays one is used to expecting heavy doses of realism in Malayalam films so in that sense the courtroom scenes are a deviation.

JGM is a crime thriller that starts with a murder of a lady professor. The narration has multiple layers veering towards the convoluted and nothing is prima facie what it appears to be.

I was a tad confused with so many languages in the orig. Audio. In my understanding the film is set in Bangalore where Tamil and Malayalam are also commonly spoken.

As its a thriller, it would not be right in this review to spoil the suspense for other viewers. Suffice it to say that the film is very watchable and rivetting especially once the courtroom dramatics begin.