Movie review 'Jyothi Lakshmi': Charmme goes from bold to mature
Cast: Charmme, Satya Dev, Brahmanandam and others
Director: Puri Jagannath
Rating: 2 stars
After delivering a blockbuster like Temper, director Puri Jagannath has now come up with a woman-centric film Jyothi Lakshmi. Charmme plays the lead and she also forays into production with this film. The actress personally took care of publicity and promoted the film in a big way.
Satya (Satya Dev) is a software employee and falls in love with a sex worker Jyothi Lakshmi (Charmme). He visits her and spends time with her. To her surprise, one day he reveals that he wants to marry her. She escapes from the brothel to marry Satya and starts a fresh life. Post marriage, some goons track her down and try to take her back to the brothel, but she fights it out. The remaining story is how Jyothi Lakshmi transforms her life.
Director Puri Jagannath has adapted Malladi Venkata Krishna Murthy’s novel Misses Parankusam as Jyothi Lakshmi. The director has a message in it, but the way he comes up with the transformation of Charmme’s character is a big drawback. In the second half he is in a bit of a hurry to end the film. However, Puri cleverly highlights a few recent real life incidents.
When it comes to performance, it is Charmme all the way. She comes up with a bold performance as a sex worker and later, after her transformation, she shows her maturity. Satya Dev is another find. Though this is his second film, he looks terrific on the screen and his performance is very good. Sadly, in the second half, his character is only minimal. Aziz Nasser is also impressive in a supporting role.
Dialogues are written by Puri Jagannath and some of them are thought-provoking. The music is good and the title song is nice. A big drawback is the placement of songs. The item song on Brahmanandam is a big waste.
On the whole, Jyothi Lakshmi is a message-oriented film, but it ended with some clichéd scenes. Charmme’s performance is one of the highlights and the film may work in B and C centres.
