JOSH (Naga Chaitanya, Karthika) - Telugu Movie Review
(Courtesy: TeluguCinema.Com)

Satya (Naga Chaitanya) is a student. He discontinues his gradation studies in Vizag and comes to Hydearabad in search of a job. He stays with his uncle (Sunil) in Hyderabad and gets a job in a nursery. He runs into a fight with local college students who are influenced by political mafia leader Durga Rao (J D Chekaravarthy). Satya tries to change the students but fails. Then he joins in the college to cleanse the system. On the other hand, there is Vidya, a teenager, who aspires to go to college but could not as her brother feels college students are rowdies and she would not be safe in college. So she teaches in an elementary school. She meets Satya and love blossoms between them. Main crux of the movie is how Satya changes the students and brings them out the bad influence of Durga Rao.

Analysis

Josh is debut film of Nagarjuna’s son Naga Chaitanya. Like all star son’s maiden movies, the film has raised gargantuan expectations and created tremendous curiosity. But Josh fails to live up to the expectations as the movie lacks both the novelty factor as well as ‘supposedly commercial elements’. Indeed, there is no josh in the treatment. It is pretty ordinary. A star son’s launch film, either should be made with commercial values or with a unique script. Josh has neither the qualities. The story has a message but the director has failed to tell it in interesting manner. Debutant director Vasu Varma creates false ‘buildup’ for hero’s introduction and makes him behave as if he is hiding something startling secret but when he lets out it in the flashback, it doesn’t make any impact.

Only when the hero makes a ‘speech’ on how much burden a student goes through these days, audiences really feel for it. That is the only scene that makes an impact. Rest is just an okay.

Looks like producer Dil Raju is infatuated with ‘message theme’ after the success of Bommarillu. It is understandable if a film has inherent message in it but it would be silly to weave script around a message by forcibly. That is the major fault in this script.

Performances

Naga Chaitanya has boyish charm. Looks wise, he has qualities to become a good romantic hero like his father if he further focuses on grooming. Although he makes neat debut but he still looks like a ‘boy’. For a debut hero, he has a neat dialogue delivery. He has shown his talent especially in the ‘college speech’ scene. He has to develop in dances and needs to hone acting skills.

Karthika, daughter of erstwhile glam queen Radha, is okay. Her dusky looks might not go well with our audiences who seek gora girls. The irritating factor is Savitha Reddy’s dubbing, her voice is same for all the heroines. It is high time that our filmmakers should stop using her voice for every other actress. Also Karthika’s characterization looks like the extension of Haasini in Bommarillu (Dil Raju’s hangover continues..).

J D Chekravarthy has villain does good job. His is extension of Bhavani’s role in Shiva. Sunil provides some comedy with actress.

Technically, it is Sameer Reddy’s cinematography that catches the eye. His work is neat. Music by Sandeep Chowta is not that good except a melody song (Neeto unte..) and college fun song. Background score is good. Production values are just okay. Debutant director Vasu Varma is letdown by his own shoddy screenplay although he has shown spark in dialogues department. Student groups and nexus between student leaders and political leaders is thing of the past. Yet, the director has chosen this angle. Probably, he has written the plot in his graduation days.

Bottom-line

Josh is not a right script for a star son like Nag Chaitanya’s launch. It has no novelty nor is the treatment is better. Indeed, Josh lacks josh. It is pretty ordinary and fails to impress. Couple of songs, a fight here or there and Naga Chaitanya’s confident debut are the only positive aspects. If you want to get a glimpse of how Nagarjuna’s son Naga Chaitanya looks like on silver screen, you can buy ticket on that aspect only. On quality aspects, the film fails to impress.