Jackson Durai Review -  A promising start before fizzling out!!! 

Bharath Vijayakumar

Those who had seen Dharani Dharan’s debut vehicle Burma would relate to him as someone who had a certain style with his stamp quite visible on screen. You could also sense that he did not want to tread the beaten path. So the promos of Jackson Durai did leave me with mixed thoughts. Has Dharani Dharan turned to popular cinema with vengeance or has he tried to bring in his flavour to horror comedy, a genre so oft repeated in recent times that might have resulted in ghosts seeking a ban on this genre had they had a union for themselves.

Plot:

The hero has to survive seven days in a supposedly haunted house to win his lady love.

Cast:

Sibi has never been a natural actor but perseverance does pay off at times. If not anything his recent choice of films has been interesting and more importantly looks like he has prepared a ‘not-to-do’ checklist and this certainly helps. Karunakaran and Yogi Babu do their part in bringing in the laughs but you can easily number out the laugh out loud moments. The frequency of these genuine laughs is definitely on the lower end of the scale. Sathyaraj and his comrade of ghosts with their mime like makeover and expressions do not really set the stage on fire.

Dharani Dharan:

Yes. The film is a horror comedy and does have its share of cheap scares. But the maker tries to bring in some original ideas. As much as you would like to applaud his intention, the end product does keep our hands tied. The hero’s introduction for instance. The self-mockery is appreciable and so is the idea of coming out from the smoke. But it looks too much stressed that a sense of ‘See how cool I am’ ensues. Furthermore this trait of the hero is forgotten for the rest of the film. So the film never really works as one continuous piece. Not completely sure of the idea of mixing patriotism and comedy. I am not talking about it being taboo or something but expecting the audience to give their attention to a scene as serious as a teenager bearing the brunt of a bullet for a cause and then a few scenes later expecting them to laugh at the zaniness on screen looks a little far-fetched. Not that I would complain if it was done effectively. Most of the comedy in the film ideally should have worked. The actors too are fairly competent. But a lot is lost in translation. The best joke in the film for me was the one about the British ghosts reading ‘The Hindu’. This one works because this joke is really on paper and is not something that had to be acted out on screen.

Bottomline:

A promising start and an interesting amalgamation of ideas. But does fizzle out towards the end.

Rating: 2.25/5