Jaanu Review: A Lengthy Underwhelming Romantic Drama!

Jaanu Review: Clocking just under a titanic three-hour runtime, Jaanu – an official remake of the hit 2018 Tamil film ’96 is centered around a universally accepted theme that “Love is the purest form of emotion!” Directed by C. Prem Kumar (who also helmed the original), the movie stars Sharwanand and Samantha Akkineni portraying the roles of Ram and Janaki – the high school sweethearts, who reunite after fifteen years. Govind Vasantha who also scored the music for the original, conveyed his emotion through and through with the remarkably written background score and soulful songs which help the movie flow regardless of all the flaws.

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The storyline of Jaanu opens with Ram—now a travel photographer and a teacher for his students learning photography unexpectedly walks across his school hallway, which rekindles all the cheery memories of his sweet childhood. After arranging a reunion with all his school friends, he notably struggles to speak with his ex-girlfriend – Jaanu, for obvious reasons. The remainder of the movie showcases their love relationship and how things changed drastically within those fifteen years.

Now, I want to start by stating that I never had the opportunity to watch the original starring Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha Krishnan, which I regret. But, it helped me watch this film with a clean perspective engaged with zero to minimal expectations and hype. However, my opinion might not fancy everyone who seemingly loved the movie, as films are subjective, and you’re allowed to have a different opinion than mine. With that being said, on the contrary, Jaanu didn’t connect with me in any aspect from the beginning till the end.

Beginning with the two-hour fifty-minute runtime, this is a long movie, and it really began to creep on me one-hour into the narrative as it moved at a snail’s pace. And that might be the intention of director Prem who sets the tone of the movie from the opening scene. But, the tiny detours, comedic scenes, and a few other story beats didn’t fit in the narrative well and only prolonged the already gargantuan runtime.

Despite having an unpopular opinion of not being able to connect, feel, or relate to the lead characters, their relationship struggles, and the overall emotion. I can, and I will commend the decisions Prem Kumar made and the subtle messages he’s able to convey through his story.

The reflections about little things making a huge difference, not being able to re-write the past, moving on from the past are, in my opinion, the heart, and the soul of the film, inside and out. He stuck to his gut and did not take the easy way out by ending the film on a happy note or re-adjusting his approach based on the audience. Despite the success and the overall execution, it is, at least, refreshing to see a diverse film when compared to the other generic romantic dramas.

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Penultimately, the strong performances from both the lead stars – Sharwanand and Samantha Akkineni were the strong suit of the entire film. Their chemistry worked, and they shined bright together as an on-screen couple. Especially, they both complimented each other really well during the sentimental scenes similar to the actors who played their younger versions.

Overall, considering the fact I did not make any good friends at school, not enjoying the school atmosphere and not being able to connect to the lead characters, my experience with Jaanu is thoroughly mixed. From the beginning till the end, I did not emote or feel for anything, or maybe I’m just too cynical about pure love stories, in general. As I go through the movie again, nothing stuck out to me except for the brilliant performances from the lead cast. I’m not going to sit through this movie again, and maybe you should, or you can wait till it premieres on Amazon Prime in a month.

Jaanu Rating – 2/5 | Grade – C+

Images via Sri Venkateswara Creations

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