By Baiju NT [ December 27, 2011 ]
views: (1924)

There have been umpteen films set against a mafia backdrop! A new attempt on the same plotline requires new ideas and novelty in presentation. Merely getting new actors and covering up the lack of substance with style, or putting together bits and pieces from other films, is not really going to work. And it doesn't with Vishnuvardhan's Panjaa. Even the presence of Pawan Kalyan is not of much help as the plot line is so clichéd and pieced together from so many films that one feels one has seen it all before.

Panjaa revolves around Jai (Pawan Kalyan), loyal hit man who works for a Kolkata-based don Bhagawan (Jackie Shroff). Atul Kulkarani is Bhagawan's rival and naturally, there is a constant war going on between the two groups for the supremacy. Jai has a childhood friend Jahnavi (Anjali Lavania) and she is working as a club dancer. Bhagawan's psychopathic son Munna (Adavi Sesh) has an eye on her, but since she rejects him, he kills her. The furious Jai kills Munna in return, consequently becoming the prime target of Bhagavan. What happens next is the rest of the film.

Panjaa is not exactly the high voltage action and romantic entertainer as it was billed out to be. It is no way near to the best films of Pawan Kalyan. The Telugu movie is an average film that will not please even the diehard fans of the Power Star. Vishnuvardhan, who makes his debut in Telugu cinema, comes up with a product that is slick and stylish, but the content is sourced from so many films that one feels a sense of déjà vu. Panjaa also reminds one of Pawan Kalyan's own earlier movie Balu.

The second half of the film lags a bit. There doesn't seem to be much originality in the story telling. The film meanders along with strong doses of violence and then peters out aimlessly. The director seems to lose his grip over the narration with the introduction of the Brahmanandam episode which doesn't gel with the story and with the pace of the film. The dialogues, too, are not powerful.

Pawan Kalyan does the action sequences with tremendous ease, but is let down by a weak script in other scenes. His character lacks intensity and he comes through as rather subdued. The two debutante heroines, Sarah Jane Dias and Anjali Lavania, don't exactly set the screen on fire. They may have the glam factor but both deliver barely satisfactory performances. Tanikella Bharani is convincing in his role. Jackie Shroff looks jaded but delivers a competent performance as Bhagawan. Atul Kulkarni, unfortunately, doesn't have much of a role although he is a brilliant actor. Sesh Adivi is worth watching.

Technically, P.S. Vinod's cinematography is quite good and so is the art direction, where one gets to see quite a bit of Kolkata where the film has been extensively shot. Yuvan Shankar Raja's music is okay. Sreekar Prasad does a decent job with the editing. On the whole, Panjaa is nothing extraordinary and even a bit disappointing.