Movie review 'Just Love': Nothing to ‘feel maadi’ about!

Karthik Jayaram is riding high on the popularity of his small screen avatar in Ashwini Nakshatra. Known as JK, he has made a transformation as ‘hero,’ with Just Love with a somewhat cliched tag line Feel Maadi! But the shift seems to have taken off on a wrong footing with the movie barely having anything to feel about — in terms of ‘entertainment’ barring a few good comic moments thanks to comedian Chikkanna. The rest is just old wine in a new bottle with a different (and no so nice) taste!

Despite his poor dancing skills, JK sounds more mature as an actor on the big screen but the movie as a whole fails bitterly, including the performances by female debutant Neha Saxena. With an old subject of love and an attempt to conquer it, the director fails to deliver and crash lands with a very disappointing climax.

The story-line is nothing new — JK portrays the lead character Surya, a single child with an easy going attitude, who accidentally finds the beautiful Nandini (Neha Saxena) on a journey, who is on the run from her father who disapproved her choice of a life partner. Cliched as it may sound, Nandini finds a life partner in Surya, and even stays for a brief period with Surya and his parents. She proposes to Surya but he rejects her love, only to realise it was the wrong thing to do! The scenes till the climax are the ‘success formula’ that most love stories tread painfully on. This one definitely does not win over the audience.

A big positive from a more or less below average movie, is Chikkanna who has carved his own niche as an effective ‘comedian’ with great comic timing, body language and good humour. With many more movies for JK to hit the screens in the coming days, this one will soon be forgotten. A nice watch for all JK fans, it has some good songs and Chikkanna’s performance as “saving grace.”