Story

Jai (Navadeep) is the only son of a globetrotting businesswoman and widow (Ayesha Julka). Farah (Santoshi) is the daughter of a café owner in Old City. Jai and Farah fall in love. Jai's mother goes to Pakistan for a business deal and clinches an offer of conducting boxing match between India and Pakistan in Hyderabad. She gives the responsibility of managing that event to Jai. After winning the competition, the Pakistani boxer passes derogatory remarks on India and Indians. Jai protests those comments and warns the Pakistani that he would fight with him in the next series of matches and win them to prove the greatness of India.

Meanwhile, father of Farah starts giving boxing lessons to Jai. The Pakistani officials and Lashkar-e-Toiba's chief monitor the progress of Jai with their informers in India. They send goons and stab the father of Farah. They also hunt for Jai and damage his right fist and ribcage, so that he would become unfit to fight the boxing match. The doctor tells Jai that he should be bed-ridden for at least 6 months. And the match is just 20 days away. The rest of the story is all about how Jai participates in the match and win it.

Artists Performance

Navadeep looks cute and he is perfect for the role of Jai. His dialogue delivery is immaculate (somebody might have dubbed his voice). His teen charm and innocent eyes would make girls fall for him. Heroine Santoshi is not a good-looking girl, but she is a very good performer. The characterization of heroine in this film is very good. Her dialogue - 'Naa Full Support neeke' is good. The guy who did the role of Sunil Shetty is impressive and he can join the gang of comedians if he proves himself further in other films. Tanikella Bharani is terrific as the father of heroine. Venu Madhav provided some comedy in first half. Duvvasi Mohan is good as usual. Abhinaya Sri did a vamp role of a cigar-smoking college maid. Ayesha Julka is beautiful wearing business suits all the time.

Technical Departments:

Story: Story of the film has the shades of 'Nuvvu Nenu' in the first half and 'Bhadrachalam' (Srihari's film) in the second half. The first half deals with love angle between the lead pair. Second half deals with patriotic angle between hero and Pakistani boxer.

Screenplay - direction: Screenplay of the film is neat in the initial hour of the film. The characters are established very well. Hero's longing for love of his mother is shown in a touching way. But he tried to exploit the patriotism by inserting scenes forcibly in the second half. The love track between the lead pair is good. But the patriotic track between India and Pakistan is half-cooked. There are impressive scenes like heroine brother agreeing to coach hero towards climax. However, these following points sound quite illogical:

1. The Pakistanis would be speaking in Telugu. They speak more Telugu than the Telugu spoke by heroine's family staying in Hyderabad.

2. Ayesh Julka (MD of Zingaro Non-alchoholic Bewerages Company) goes to Pakistan and fixes up a deal with people out there for a Boxing match. There is a respective Sports Authority in each country, which deals with organizing matches and championships. Then they invite for sponsors. Here, the sponsoring company decides who would play with whom and SAI (Sports Authority of India) conducts the match. Ayesha also decides who would be the match referee (Tanikella Bharani - a café owner - does the referee job for the match).

3. Chief of Lakshkar-e-Toiba and other Pakistani top brass people would be monitoring daily progress of hero through their informers as if they do not have any other work to do.

4. Ayesha goes missing in the second half of the film.

5. TV9 relays the boxing matches live and people in Pakistan would be viewing them.

Other departments: Songs by Anup are OK. Enni Aasalo and Desam Manare songs are good. Background music is impressive. Dialogues by MVS Haranadha Rao has more of Teja flavor. Lots of dialogues are written to arouse the patriotism in the hearts of the audience. Photography by newcomer Ravi Varma is excellent. Editing by Shankar is OK. Fights by Ram-Lakshman are good outside the ring (boxing ring). The boxing episodes are not conceived well. Choreography by Shankar is fair.

Analysis: First half of the film deals with teen love story between rags and riches. The interval point alters the orientation of the film. Second half is dealt with action episodes and the angle of patriotism. First half of the film is terribly slow. Second half is comparatively faster. Instead of concentrating more on what he is good at, director Teja has chosen to elaborate and exploit the patriotism aspect. He failed in getting emotions right through patriotic episodes. Teja's strength is making teen-love stories and succeeded fully whenever he did it (Chitram, Nuvvu-Nenu and Jayam). He failed whenever he deviated from teen-love stories and handled different subjects (Family Circus - family and Nijam - corruption). This film deals with both love (first half) and patriotism (second half). We have to wait and see what the Box Office has store in store for 'Jai'.