Junga - A quirky misfire!

Bharath Vijayakumar

Most comedies have a thin one liner and so does Junga. It is about a miserly don who is off to a foreign land on a mission. This is a film that wants to revel on its own quirkiness, so much so that it seems to forget the need to be actually quirky and funny.   

Vijay Sethupathy is the best when it comes to playing the don/rowdy who takes himself too seriously and making this trait the butt of the jokes. But over here there is something missing or is it a case of repetition leading to boredom? He along with Yogi Babu do raise a few laughs but the strike rate is abysmally low given their potential. It is Saranya and the actress playing Junga's mother and grandmother respectively who keep scoring in their limited screen time. Saayesha looks the part and gets her lip sync mostly correct once again. Like most of our films the foreign actors continue to be a major downer in Junga.    

The major issue with the film is that it happens to play out like a parody at times and then we have action scenes and even comical stretches that are downright silly (unintentional). How else would you explain the lyrics to a tune that goes like 'Yevan Edhirthaalum Thamizhan Jeippaan' that plays in the background as our hero takes on a horde of French henchmen. The hero swims across a river in freezing cold to avoid transportation cost. It is supposed to be funny but it is anything but on screen.There are quite a few scenes like this that have us asking 'Was that supposed to be funny?'.   

Bottomline:

The thing with comedy is that more often than not it either works or does not. The middle ground is mostly absent. While Junga mostly leans towards the negative, few bursts of laugher ensure that the ship does not sink fully.   

Rating: 2/5