Movie review 'Jadoogadu': No ‘Jadoo’ in this Jadoogadu

Cast: Naga Shaurya, Sonarika, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Ajay, Zakir Hussain and Ravi Kale
Director: Yogesh
Rating: Three and a half stars

Promising actor Naga Shaurya has tried a different genre with the action entertainer Jadoogadu.Yogesh is the director, while Sonarika plays the female lead. Village lad Krishna (Shaurya) wants to become a crorepati and comes to Hyderabad and lives with his friends. He becomes a loan recovery agent for a bank, to reach his goal. He comes in contact with local mafia don Srisailam (Zakir Hussain), who asks him to join his gang. Srisailam works for a central minister (Kota Srinivasa Rao).

In the meantime, Krishna falls in love with a nurse (Sonarika) and plans to settle down in Dubai with her after his dream comes true. But Srisailam has other plans, as he involves Krishna in a Rs 1000 crore scam, without Krishna’s knowledge. On the other hand, a corrupt police commissioner (Ashish Vidyarthi) is also after the money.
The crux of the story is how everyone is chasing the money and what happens to Krishna’s dream. Director Yogesh is back after a long gap with this film. The film starts on an interesting note of introducing the protagonist and his dream. He establishes the characters well with the right mix of comedy and romance, but after some time, the screenplay goes wrong and the story starts to drag. Moreover, he forcefully inserts a few scenes like Saptagiri’s Viagra episode.

On the performance front, Shaurya is definitely a talented actor with a bubbly face and good looks, but he didn’t suit the character. He looks very good especially in the action scenes, which have been choreographed well. He has also improved on his dance, which he didn’t do much in his earlier films. Sonarika makes her debut with this film and she provides the glamour quotient adequately. Srinivas Reddy provides a few laughs in the first half, but the director completely ignores him in the second half. Ajay and Zakir have made their presence felt.

Kota Srinivasa Rao, meanwhile, has played a politician umpteen times and it is a cakewalk for him. Ravi Kale too has played a bad cop in many films and this one was just one of them. Sagar Mahati, son of music director Mani Sharma, made his debut as music director. The music is okay and like his father, even he shows his mettle in background music. The cinematography is also good.

The film could be a good entertainer with some interesting twists, but it only entertains now and then. The Taguboth Ramesh scene is a big waste and the Saptagiri and the call girl episode is also not nice with cheap dialogues.