Panjaa Movie Review - by Chaitanya Kumar Vummethala

Finally its the time for me to post my review on Pawan Kalyan's Panjaa (Today Matnee Show @ Vyjayanthi, Nacharam). By the way, this is my 23rd consecutive post on Pawan Kalyan's Panjaa - that's the expectations I had on the movie..

Naturally due to very high expectations and hype on the movie the first day talks were as usual mixed and at places, the talk even spread as below average. But in my view (after watching the movie) the standards and the technicalities were at top notch and will certainly become a box-office hit. However the movie will not get into masses on the first week, since the movie is a stylish action entertainer (as claimed by the makers of Panjaa) without containing much of mass elements in it!

Story, Screenplay & Direction: Story is based on a single but powerful point, "Sahaayam Pondina Vaadu, Kruthagnatha Choopinchakapovadam Yentha Thappo... Sahaayam Cheysinavaadu, Kruthagnatha Korukovadam Kooda Anthey Thappu"! 


Vishnu Vardhan should have spent more time on the script work as he wanted to narrate the story, based on the mafia backdrop - in a high standard. Though the subject and the theme he chosen for Panjaa is not brand new to the industry, he had every chance to make it as a master piece - as the lead role is performing by Power Star Pawan Kalyan himself in collaboration with  brilliant technical team and passionate movie makers (Producers). Vishnu missing out the gripping narration of the story in the 2nd half, when compared to that of 1st half - can be clearly seen on screen. The flashback episode where Jackie Shroff helps Pawan Kalyan, when he was child could have been shown in a much better way! Nevertheless, Vishnu's stylish taking with respect to the theme of the subject is another asset to the movie. 

Dialogue Writer: Abburi Ravi's dialogues were not so influential on the audience and was never added value to the overall output.   

Music: melodious music and sensible background score are the suitable words for Yuvan Shankar Raja's work. The music album has already released couple of weeks back and become a big hit. Yuvan's mass beats for Paparayudu Song (including Pawan's powerful steps) are tempting mass audience to dance in the theatres, with full swing - its a super hit song and attracting movie lovers and Pawan fans a lot. Yuvan's background score and re-recording apart from the music for songs are the main highlights of the movie.

Editing: Sreekar Prasad, could have done a better job - especially placement of the title song was not at all apt (of course the title track was recorded lately due to the suspense in the title selection and also for the fact that there is no place for the title song as per the pre-planned script) but however he would have suggested a best possible option to the team in terms of placement of this song. Unnecessarily they have also scissored "Anukoneledhugaa" Song, for which class audience put high expectations on the visual treat. Overall he was just OK.

Cinematography: P S Vinod, did a splendid job with his expertise on the technical brilliance. He steals the show all over, right from the first scene until the end card - top class work. Excellent locations and magnificent camera angles in every frame resulted the final product as a perfect stylish action entertainer. Particularly the way he shot every character, the nursery and locations were mind-blowing. P S Vinod will surely  help attracting the repeat audience (in connection with Pawan Kalyan) for his superb work.

Art Department: Sunil Babu, Vaishnavi Reddy and Seenu are another set of key contributors for the success of the stylish outcome. Every set used in the songs, for nursery and as assets in the movie are very beautiful and apt, this department scored high marks.

Action: Shyam Kaushal, extraordinary job - utilized Power Star to the best. This is the key department for the project (as the movie is intended to become a stylish action entertainer based on the mafia backdrop) and every action episode in the movie remains as a highlight and added great value to the overall outcome. P S Vinod's versatility in cinematography coupled with Shyam Kaushal's action episodes reflects hollywood standards at almost every sequence.

Styling: Anu Vardhan, though the new look of Pawan Kalyan is intended to come up with a high standard stylish outcome, its Anu's commitment and deep insight into the subject and theme which makes it possible to show Pawan in a brand new look and style.

Producers: Neelima Tirumalasetti, Nagesh Muntha, Shobhu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni, deserves a great applause to their determination and contribution. The makers of this stylish movie have succeed at every stage of the production with their dedication and strategic thinking, though they are debutantes.

Artists Performances:

Cast: Pawan Kalyan, Anjali Lavania, Sara Jane Dias, Jackie Shroff, Atul Kulkarni, Adivi Sesh, Subbaraju, Tanikella Bharani, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao, Ali, Brahmanandam, Jhansi, Sampath, Kishori Ballal etc.,

As usual, Pawan rocked and steals the show with his energetic and stylish performance (as demanded by the role). His fights, dances and expressions in every frame are at peak. Though his costumes and new-look is newfangled, Pawan Kalyan never gave a chance to anyone deviating from the subject and involved thoroughly into the character. Debutantes Anjali, Sara met expectations and did justice to their roles, in fact both the actresses competed with each other on giving their best. Senior Artists - Jackie Shroff, Atul Kulkarni, Tanikella Bharani, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao everyone involved in their distinctive characters up to the requirement and did their best.

Ali and Brahmanandam were not used completely but both the comedians brings few smiles at parts - Paparayudu Song picturized on Brahmi stands as a highlight of the movie. Subbaraju's character was not appropriate but his performance as heroine's brother was OK and Jhansi's character was useless! Special mention requires for Adivi Sesh's performance, who delivered his best and scored high marks at a very early stage of this career. He excelled as a young sadistic villain. 

Overall Analysis: 

High expectations starts on the day, Pawan Kalyan's movie gets announced and on the day one of its release its quite natural that every audience will go to the theatres with their own expectations and at times with high assumptions on Pawan Kalyan's character and of that matter story line and its theme. But as always Pawan chose his character and the story line as per his interest and gave minimum options kept open for the director to use his creativity. Having said that, Pawan puts his 100% effort on the project to entertain audience to the maximum. 

This time he chosen slightly a similar role as he played in Balu (a yes boss - character), but is a more stylish role when compared to the former with major changes in the script. As mentioned above, audience will always expect very high from Pawan Kalyan's Movies comparing with other recent hits (like Dookudu) and immediately jumps into wrong conclusions, if the movie fails to reach their expectations. They also promote wrong statements, such as Pawan Kalyan's role in Panjaa is almost similar to that of what he portrayed in Balu - but the fact is that the team, story line, theme, technicians every thing changed here and the idea is to take the telugu cinema to the next level with the technical brilliance and in fact, the team Panjaa have succeeded in that mission.

The first half of the movie is mind blowing with an exceptional taking and great support from every technician (whether it is from Art, Action, Music, Acting, Cinematography or any other department) - everything is going as planned by the director and script work is good but slightly slow in narration. Screenplay was fine and never below the par to the standards of Vishnu Vardhan but the only lagging factor here is the subject and the story line. Time and again I am mentioning that, its because of the story line most of the viewers are not getting connected to Panjaa due to the fact that the story based on the mafia backdrop will always needs to have seriousness in every character, which itched the telugu audience. But the director has taken care of including few comedy and romantic scenes in between and passed with good marks.

The second half of the movie starts as per the expectations and moves with bit slower pace, here the director tried to deviate audience to a different gender but is always having his control on the subject and gets back to the original theme whenever requires. The story of the heroine could have been narrated in a better way and the hero safe-guarding heroine by killing the bad guy could have been picturized in a much stylish way. As mentioned above, the placing of the title song was absurd and few silly mistakes in between let down the movie. However, towards the end - the director brings back the grip on the subject and finished with his style.

Commercially, Panjaa will become a box-office hit (at the max) but one should not expect huge collections from this movie. Power Star fans must wait for another 4 months to see him in a different angle as Gabbar Singh. 

My rating for Panjaa is 3.5/5.