Movie Review 'Jump Jilani': It’s a routine comedy

Jump Jilani
Cast: Allari Naresh, Isha Chawla, Swathi Dixit, Kota and Rao Ramesh
Director: E Satti Babu
Rating: **1/2

After Laddu Babu, Allari Naresh is back with yet another comedy Jump Jilani. He plays a double role in this film with Isha Chawla and Swathi Dixit as the two female leads. E. Satti Babu has directed this film which is a remake of Tamil hit film Kalakalappu.

In the film, Sattibabu (Allari Naresh) runs a hotel in Nidadavole with the help of his grandfather (Kota Srinivasa Rao) and Ganga (Swathi Dixit). The hotel is not doing well but he keeps it going for his grandfather’s sake. A new health inspector Madhavi (Isha Chawla) comes to their village and Sattibabu falls in love with her. In the meantime his brother Rambabu (Naresh again) is back from jail and joins hands with Sattibabu, but always manages to create problems for him. Rambabu falls in love with Ganga.

Enter the bad guy Ugra Narasimha Reddy (Posani Krishna Murali) of Pulivendula who wants to marry Madhavi against her wishes. Sattibabu tries to stop the wedding and get his fiancée back. On another track of the story, Rao Ramesh and his team are looking for his diamond phone and reach the brothers. A chase with many twists and turns follows.

The Tamil version of the film had two lead actors, but for the Telugu version, director Satti Babu decided to cast Allari Naresh in both the roles. The director takes his own time to establish the storyline in the first half of the film.

Allari Naresh has done his best and has played both the characters in two distinct styles. Posani Krishna Murali as the Rayalaseema factionist, entering only in the second half, steals the show from then on. He provides a few laughs along with M.S. Narayana and Tagubothu Ramesh. The two leading ladies Isha Chawla and Swathi Dixit have performed well. Raghu Babu keeps the audience in splits. The drawback of the film is that it is a routine and stale comedy. Naresh is perfect, but he doesn’t get much support from others. Moreover it becomes a bit of an overdose to keep seeing Naresh in two characters doing regular comedy routines. There is a lack of punch in the dialogues and the story drags on. The audience is likely to get bored. The climax is confusing as too many characters come in. It could have been better and simpler. The film could have used some good editing and crisp direction.

The technical aspects of the film are noteworthy with good cinematography and music. In all, this is a time-pass film in which you can expect some good laughs in the film’s second half.