Jaanu Review – A Faithful Remake!

The official remake of a Tamil super hit flick ‘96’ which is titled ‘Jaanu’ has been released finally. The movie has created mixed feelings in the people before the release of the film. Let’s see how the film is.

Cast: Sharwanand, Samantha

Director: C. Prem Kumar

Jaanu Story:

K Rama Chandra (Sharwanand) who is a travel photographer visits his native place Vizag. While passing by his school, he reminds his school memories including his first love story. Becoming nostalgic, Ram contacts his school group on WhatsApp and arranges a reunion in Hyderabad with the help of his friends where he meets Jaanu (Samantha), his first love, after two decades. How Ram opens up about his love for Jaanu forms the remaining story.

Performances:

Sharwanand: This guy is carefully choosing his roles and getting succeeded often. As an emotional guy, he performed superb and the way he tried to bring out the emotions he stored in his heart for years brings tears, if you haven’t seen the original version. He carried the sadness in his face and body language from start of the film which is quite important for the role he played. He might have missed the pure innocence which we can clearly observe in ‘96’. But, if we see it just as a film other than reminding that it is a remade one, we cannot point out a mistake in Sharwa!

Samantha: She proved her acting skills once again and made audience cry, feeling emotional. She carried the heavyweight carefully by bringing the emotions at the right time and made it look natural. Her expressions are as usual killing. Every little thing from Samantha’s side is praise-worthy. However, if audience have watched 96 and connected to Trisha and her white and blue combination dress, they may disappoint a bit. But, the film is really a great treat for Sam fans.

Other Cast: Vennela Kishore and Tagubothu Ramesh played the roles of Sharwa’s childhood friends. Remaining characters have given no much importance in the film.

Crew:

Director: Dil Raju roped in C. Prem Kumar who handled the direction of the original film to helm this remake and his choice is perfect as usual. Prem recreated the same magic again with Jaanu and managed to bring out the best from the lead actors. As the cast is chosen carefully, Prem had a very little burden on him. But, he did a great job by making convincing changes from the original version to match the taste of Telugu audience and got succeeded in his effort.

Music Director: Govinda Vasantha has gained superb response for his sound track in the original film, especially BGM. In Jaanu too, he composed good tunes for songs and the background music is killing. It has created a great feel in emotional scenes.

Production Values: Needless to speak about Dil Raju’s production work. The production values are superb and Raju didn’t compromise a little in elevating the film and made it reach the expectations of the audience.

Other Crew: Cinematography is a great support to the film. The night effects were impressive and Mahendiran Jayaraju did an excellent work as he managed to shoot most of the film in just two places – Ram’s house and the hotel room. Editing by Praveen is perfect as there is no single waste or boring scene in the film.

Film Analysis:

Jaanu is a faithful remake of the original film 96. Dil Raju making Samantha and Sharwanand stepping into the shoes of Trisha and Vijay Sethupathi is the right thing as both the actors gave the feel to the audience that no actors will do justice, if chosen them! The film could be called a ‘classic’ but if you have watched the original already, you may not get the same feeling, we mean you miss classic feel!

When the film is a remake, a few things may upset audience as they won’t get the same feel of watching the original version. But, the whole cast and crew managed to make audience not get that feel, say up to 99 per cent. The film starts with Sharwa being so unhappy and lost with his life because of his first love and ends with him bagging a lot of happy and emotional memories for his life time.

The first half is filled with the school love story which reminds of yours, of course! And the proceedings in the second half are superb. The movie is as slow as that one may feel they are getting head ache and a bad boredom, but emotional connect comes as a savior and made audience stick to their chairs. The first-time watchers (who haven’t watched 96) may feel too emotional and a bit nervous too as the unexpected climax will give them a blow. Overall, Jaanu matches the original, without any doubt!

What’s Good?

Lead performances

BGM

Production Values

Cinema work

What’s Okay?

There is nothing like okay here, everything is quite good!

What’s Bad?

Nothing

Verdict: Jaanu is a faithful and genuine remake with good and required changes that matches the taste of the audience. Watch it!