Jathi Ratnalu Movie Review: A fun-filled roller coaster ride

Jathi Ratnalu is a film which has made a huge pre-release buzz as it is coming from the production of Swapna Cinema and Nag Ashwin, the team behind “Mahanati”. Lead actor Naveen Polishetty also made a huge impression with his earlier film, “Agent Sai Srinivas Athreya”. The other reason is the trailers which are highly entertaining. All these factors have helped to create big hype around this movie.

Let’s find out whether the film is entertaining as the trailer promised.

Story:

Srikanth (Naveen Polishetty) runs a ladies emporium in Jogipet. He is ashamed of people calling him Ladies Emporium Srikanth and dreams of getting a job in Hyderabad and settle there. Along with his two friends Sekhar (Priyadarshi) and Ravi (Rahul Ramakrishna), Srikanth land in Hyderabad. Circumstances lead them to occupy a vacant flat in a rich gated community, and Srikanth falls for the charm of Chitti (Faria), who is the daughter of their neighbour.

One of the residents of the apartment complex is a politician Chanakya (Murali Sharma). One day, he throws a party. Srikanth, Ravi, and Sekhar land in a trouble due to an incident at the party, and were sent into jail. How they prove their innocence and come out of this mess is the rest of the story.

Artistes’ Performances:

Naveen Polishetty has a terrific screen presence and has shown so much ease in acting. After nailing ‘Agent Sai Srinivas Athreya’ role perfectly, he glides into the character of a small-town guy effortlessly. The film is his show entirely. His comic timing is impeccable.

Rahul Ramakrishna and Priyadarshi are an absolute joy to watch. The trio – Naveen Polishetty, Rahul Ramakrishna, and Priyadarshi – have made this film tick. Newcomer Faria Abdullah fits well in her role. Vennela Kishore as jail inmate and veteran comedian Brahmanandam as a judge have also contributed to the film’s fun quotient. Murali Sharma as a politician is okay. Keerthy Suresh and Vijay Deverakonda make cameo appearances.

Technical Excellence:

The film has a decent production design, and technical shine. Radhan’s music work has already gone viral with ‘Chitti song’ and it fits well in the story. The background score is neat. Siddam Manohar’s cinematography is fairly decent and editing is fine.

Analysis:

“Jathi Ratnalu” comes to the point directly and begins on a fun note. Without taking much time, it introduces the main characters – Naveen, Rahul, and Priyadarshi, and their goals and their problems, and shifts its story backdrop from small-town Jogipet to Hyderabad. The storyline is very thin.

At the very beginning of the film, the director establishes that it is a madcap entertainer, asks us not to look for reason or logic. Though “Jathi Ratnalu” has a thinner storyline, it provides more fun.

As a plot, it doesn’t have much to offer, but the director Anudeep has humor in his armour. He handled a lot of scenes with confidence. The first half of the film is filled with fun and entertainment.

It is nonsensical to the core. Characters keep coming, silly situations do happen, the movie meanders into all sorts of directions. Still, the fun never fades. Jokes are offered aplenty. The three lead actors, their terrific comic timing and the absurd situations have worked and generated a lot of fun.

The first half ends on a great promise, but the same cannot be said for the post-interval situations. The court proceedings are too silly for even the standard of this madcap movie.

The director and writers seem to have fallen in love with their one-liners and comic writing so much so that they have forgotten to chop the runtime. The pace goes slow down towards the end. The final moments luckily save it. But some sequences look forced and don't work in the second half.

In a nutshell, “Jathi Ratnalu” is a joyride laced with outrageously funny sequences. It is crazy and lacks logic. Forget everything, watch it for its abundant comedy and Naveen Polishetty’s show.