BT2 SAB: ‘Jana Gana Mana’ movie review: Its politics get right, execution not so much

At times it may not be of any use to make speeches or toss facts and evidence to make people question some of their deepest prejudices. A better way to go about it might be to appeal to their prejudices first, and slowly begin to overcome it from within. Filmmaker Dijo Jose Antony and screenwriter Sharis Mohamed carry on this saying in the film Jan Gan Man.

Quite interestingly, at the interval point, they enthuse the audience for encounter killings – which are unfortunately also quite popular in our society – only to spend the next half showing why this whole idea is wrong. But, at least in cinema, people would like the rug to be pulled out from under their feet, which is why many hailed both the idea and its elimination.

At the center of the story is a university in Karnataka. The burnt body of Saba (Mamata Mohandas), an outspoken professor who takes a stand against the administration for various issues related to students, is found near the highway, leading to a huge protest from the students. In scenes reminiscent of the real world, the police brutally thrashed the protesting students. When Sajjan Kumar (Suraj Venjaramudu) takes over the investigation in a deliberately purposeful manner, the students have little faith in the police.

after such a great start Queen, filmmaker Dijo Jose Antony widened the scale of his ambition in his attempt at sophistication. The contemporary debate in the country, around the development of right-wing politics, which survives on the constant stirring of communal pot and the propagation of hatred, will certainly be running in the mind of the screenwriter while writing the film.

But despite its true intentions and partly interesting structure, the construction is quite uneven. Much of the treatment is loud and ultra-dramatic, especially the court scenes in the latter half. While it deviates inexplicably in the early campus scenes, a lot is said in some of the hasty scenes towards the end. Much of this is related to the mystery surrounding Prithviraj’s character, who reappears only at an interlude point after an introduction in the prologue. The character is in constant talk not only to express his political views but also to reveal twists in the story.

Yet despite all its cinematic flaws, the film holds nothing back in the politics it wants to speak. This sparks an uneasy debate over how questioners are branded and targeted, how the media sets up narratives at the behest of the establishment, how this plays into the underlying prejudices of ordinary people, and how identity politics is used to divide people for votes.

Jana Gana Mana is currently running in theaters