There is always a trend in Indian cinema of inspiring English films and making it in Indian languages. Many great directors and actors have also tried this. For example, maniratnam’s “nayakan” in Tamil is based on the Godfather and many of the Kamalhaasan films are inspired from Hollywood films. But those films were appreciated because they will present the movie in a different way and a different screenplay that fits our culture and they put a lot of effort to make us accept that. But in recent times, they have started to copy the English movies directly some with rights and some without rights. There is a lot of difference between inspiration and copy. Recenlty two Tamil movies are copied versions of English movie “Serendipity” .Now I am going to write a review on Jay Jay, which is a direct Tamil movie. And the shocking news is that another movie “Enakku 20 Unakku 18” which is going to be released soon also inspired by “Serendipity”.
The Plot Jagan(Madhvan) and Jamuna(Amoga) meets in a shopping mall and jagan instantly falls in love with jamuna and proposes her. But jamuna who has strong belief in fate writes her address on one side of a 100 rupee note and asks madhavan to write his address on the other side then she says that now I am going to give this 100 rupee note to pay the bill. If we have luck and you will get this 100-rupee note again within one year. If you get the rupee then we will meet again otherwise everything is in fate’s hands. Then jamuna flies to her native Calcutta. Soon jamuna also realizes her love on jagan and starts searching him and the 100-rupee note. Similarly jagan also in search of 100-rupee note to find her address.Meanwhile, both of them are forced for an arranged marriage by their parents. They accept for the marriage halfmindedly.After lots of twists and turns the screenplay tells u how they get united in the climax.
Performance of Crew members Story, Screenplay and Direction-Charan The story is good but as it is already known that it is copied from “Serendipity” I cannot wholeheartedly appreciate Charan for the story. The screenplay is also week and lagging in most of the places, particulary when madhavan goes to Calcutta in search of jamuna. Like his senior K.Balachander he used to include lot of small characters in the screenplay. As a director he could bring out the expressions from both the new girls well.
Editng-V.T.Vijayan Though interesting it becomes bored at a point. The film is lengthy; editor could have reduced lengths of some scenes.
Cimenatography-Venkatesh The cinematography is pleasant capturing the beauty of Greece in the songs. As the stunts are not required it doesn’t have any impact.
Music direction-Bharadwaj The music is by Bharadwaj.The music is great relaxation in the movie. Though not excellent they are good. But no song has a perfect lead and doesn’t fit in the screenplay well. My favorite is “thaedi thaedi” that is almost used as theme song of the movie in many places. But I feel he is monotonous in choosing instruments for the songs. In all his films he uses violins and electric guitar a lot.
Cast performance Madhavan as jagan is shabby than ever in this film. His costumes, hairstyle are also not good.Madhavan we don’t expect this from you. A very casual performance and nothing worth mentioning. After doing different roles like arasu in “Anbesivam” and Kameswaran in “Nalathamayanthi” I thought he is going beyond hero images and doing something different but this film broke my thought and he is a very usual hero of Tamil cinema in this film.
Amoga as jamuna is good looking but she is struggling to bring out expressions in her face. I n a similar character Devayani is ten times better than Amoga in”Kadhal kottai”. She has to improve a lot in acting. Another heroine
Pooja as seema is merely wasted and she always comes to admire the good looks and physique of madhavan. Great relaxation is the natural appearance of Malavika avinash as the sister of amoga and she has done full justice to the role. Tamil cinema has got a good character artist. Dhamu is good in timed comedies and Kalabhavan mani has also done the comedy well. Charlie as a politician and Delhi ganesh as madhavan’s father are also wasted. Nothing impressive.