Movie Review: Jersey

Jersey Movie Review

   3.5/5

2 Hrs 40 M | Drama | 2019-04-19

CAST

Nani, Shraddha Srinath, Satya Raj, Praveen, Sampath Raj and others

Director - Gautham Tinnanuri
Producer - Suryadevara Naga Vamsi
Banner - Sitara Entertainments
Music - Anirudh Ravichander

Sports Dramas are very rare in Telugu cinema and Team Jersey has done an authentic sports film with lots of emotional moments. It is arguably one of the best films to come out of Tollywood in recent times.

What is it about?

Arjun (Nani) leaves cricket and settles for a small time job. But he loses the job for some reason and he depends on his wife Sara's (Shraddha) income to survive. He couldn't even buy an Indian team Jersey for his son's birthday. Arjun decides to revive his cricketing career at the age of 36 to make his son happy.

Performances:

Nani is a terrific actor who always gets into the skin of the character. With Jersey, he gets an author-backed role that is a dream for any actor. Nani just lives in the character of Arjun that we believe that he is truly a struggling middle-class man and a failed cricketer. It is his career-best performance. Shraddha Srinath is very good as a loving woman who is suffering because of an irresponsible husband. Her performance is natural. The kid who played Nani's son is adorable. Satya Raj is too good as the coach. Rest of the star cast is aptly cast.

Technicalities:

Director Gautham Tinnanuri needs to be commended for making an authentic sports film. He never deviated from the plot for the sake of commercial aspects. All the emotions are very genuine and heart touching. Every emotional moment will tug the heartstrings for sure. This is the work of a genius.

Anirudh's songs are a part of the narrative. There is not even one song that is placed for the sake of a song. Anirudh's background score is the backbone of Jersey. Cinematography by Varghese is top notch. Cinematography is top notch. The film's run time is on the higher side. They could have trimmed for ten minutes to make it even crisper. Dialogues are on point. Production values are very good.

Thumbs Up:

Nani's performance

Father-Son Scenes

Background Score

Emotional episodes

Thumbs Down:

Cricket scenes are a bit lengthy

Slow paced

Analysis:

Jersey is an emotional drama that only works when it connects to the viewer. One cannot go through the sea of emotions that Arjun is going through unless he could feel it. Nani does a wonderful job is establishing that connect right from the beginning. His performance is so natural and the production design is so perfect that we witness life unfolding on the screen. The love story of the lead pair is shown in a mini-flashback, but it is the father-son bonding that is the driving factor of Jersey.

Director establishes the strained relation of Arjun and Sara right from the word go and every scene between them is so real and sets the right mood for the drama. The scenes that lead to Arjun's reentry into cricket are very good. The story seems predictable, but the director takes everyone by surprise with an emotion-filled climax scene. The cricket scenes take too much time to wind up, but it is needed for the film as the plot is based on the sport.

The characters are etched out so well that none of them required a number of scenes to get to know about them. Principal characters are superbly written and the bonding between them is established well. Besides the husband and wife and father and son bonding, there is a wonderful bonding between a coach and his player, which is one of the most touching aspects of the film. It is not a film that is made for commercial purposes. It is a sports drama with its heart in the right place.

Jersey is not a regular film that is made for the sake of entertainment. It showcases the journey of a sportsman. It is a slice of life film that needs to be watched and experienced. It will surely be remembered for a long time as one of the best films of recent times. Go watch it.



Final Verdict: Take A Bow!




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