Josh - Review

Nagarjuna made his debut as hero from Akkineni"s clan and has been maintaining the star image till date. In order to continue the tradition, Naga Chaitanya, son of Nagarjuna has also made his entry into films with Josh. While Nagarjuna paired up with Radha, heroine of yesteryears, in many films, his son has got the opportunity to pair up with her daughter Karthika. Dil Raju, who is known as the most successful producer of the Tollywood, has introduced Vasu Varma as director of this film. Though the film is titled 'Josh", the fizz of youth, is very low.

Satya (Naga Chaitanya) is a youth from an upper middle class family. He is quite an intelligent boy and completes his pre-degree course (Intermediate) as a bright student. His father always supports him as he believes that whatever decision Satya takes would be wise. He joins the degree course and finds that life just doesn"t mean education and there is lot to enjoy. Suddenly, he declares that he doesn"t want to study and decides to leave for Hyderabad from Vizag. There, in Vizag, he stays with his maternal uncle (Sunil) and gets a job in a nursery. He had an accidental meeting with Vidya (Karthika), whose brother runs an Irani cafe near MGM College. Fed up with the students clashes and ragging, Vidya"s brother refuses to admit her in the college. So Vidya joins a nursery school as a teacher. But she dreams of joining college and enjoying the life.

Vidya and Satya develop friendship and then fall in love. On the other side, the students of MGM college are divided into two groups and they move under the eagle eye of JD (JD Chakravarthy), who was once a students leader and later became the youth leader of a political party. Whenever the party wants to organize dharnas, the students move at the directions of JD. Believing that JD is behind them, the students behave like goons. At times this leads to clashes. Once they hold a dharna and destroy the government property, buses and other vehicles. Satya lodges a complaint with the police that he has witnessed these unlawful acts. This causes heartburn among the students and they attack Satya.

In order to mend them, Satya too joins the college. Later, the students attack Satya and his friends, who are admitted to the hospital. Then Satya reveals that he did not join the college casually but to change the attitude of the students. He reveals the flashback where he too moved with a gang of friends and did lots of mischief. He never listened to the good words of the college principal (Prakash Raj). Once, Satya participated in a bike race and took the principal"s son with him. During the race, Satya"s bike met with an accident and the principal"s son died in the incident. This incident made Satya realise the value of life, as no one complained against Satya, just because they strongly felt that a student"s character would be ruined.

Satya also realised that the defect is not in the colleges or in the education system but in the age group. So, Satya wants to reform the minds of the students. His efforts turn fruitful by the time the film reaches climax and everyone shed their violent behaviour.. At the same time, Satya teaches JD a lesson as well.

PLUS:
Storyline is the basic plus point of the film as the director has chosen a novel subject with a hidden message. However, the film doesn"t appear as a message-oriented film as it runs as an undercurrent. Director Vasu Varma needs to be complimented for choosing such an off-beat story with a debut hero, despite it is a debut film for him and the heroine too. He has moulded the hero"s character with good precision and has tried to elevate his image with a slow and soft nature. Though facing the camera for the first time, Naga Chaitanya is very casual and has shown lots of ease in dances and action scenes. However, he needs to improve his body language further.

Karthika appears fresh and has not resorted to any kind of skin show, like the present generation heroines. She is quite homely and appears as the girl next door. For the first time, Red Eye camera has been used to shoot the film which has helped the producer to avoid wastage of film as it is being shot in digital mode. A couple of songs tuned by Sandeep Choutha are okay. Though they are good to listen, their choreography lacks the josh in total. Camera by Sameer Reddy and editing by Marthand K Venkatesh are okay.

MINUS:
The director, who has chosen a brilliant story for his film, has failed to present it properly on the screen in the absence of experience. In fact, the film appears good but it lacks the youthfulness. Especially, he has failed to project the hero in an enterprising way and the character moves with a subdued note as it runs in a slow nature. Moreover, the hero needs to improve his dialogue modulation. Of course, it might be because it is his first movie. Though the story has different elements like love and action, the love scenes between the hero and heroine too are not properly elevated and there are no romantic songs or scenes between them. Basically, the film has a slow run and this can disappoint the youth. But the film would attract the students as it has college in the backdrop.

REMARKS:
Basically, one should not compare one artiste with another because every one has their own style. Because, Naga Chaitanya represents two families from Tollywood, Nagarjuna and Venkatesh, he has lots of scope to improve his acting skills and can overcome all the hiccups he has faced in the first film. Let us hope that Naga Chaitanya would do much better in his next film. Karthika appears quite promising and once again Prakash Raj, who has had a very short character in the film has excelled in the role. Comic relief by Sunil is good and the audiences have a hearty laugh in a couple of scenes.

Cast: Naga Chaitanya, Karthika, Prakash Raj, JD Chakravarthy, Brahmanandam, Sunil, Surya, Sitara, Hema, Anand and others.

Credits:
Camera: Sameer Reddy
Editing: Marthand K. Venkatesh
Lyrics: Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry and Chandrabose
Music: Sandeep Choutha
Presents: Smt Anita
Producer: Dil Raju
Story, screenplay, dialogues and direction: Vasu Varma.

Banner: Venkateswara Creations

Released on: August 5, 2009