'Jogi' film review - movie of Prem and Shivarjkumar

It goes without saying that the expectations from an eminent production house are nothing less than a polished gem. The banner is a brand to reckon with today. And Ashwini Production is no exception for this. This banner's debut production, the most ambitious movie of the year - Jogi is being screened all over with a never seen before kind of craze! Jogi has style, it has substance and gloss, has thrills, and the outcome is just amazing.

Unlike the conventional filmmakers with laidback attitude, the new generation is entering the Kannada filmdom with newfangled ideas, stories and different style of narrating a tale. An apt example of this statement is Prem's Jogi which has all the qualities of becoming his consecutive third hit film. Talking strictly from the conceptual standpoint, the debate was, would Jogi go the Kariya (Prem's debut directorial) way? But, comparing Kariya and Jogi would be inaccurate as both are distinctly different where the former devoted substantial footage to love, while Jogi purely focuses on mother sentiment with no place for love and lust.

Arundati Nag

Jogi has two tracks - the cruelty of underworld and the mother-son relationship that are juxtaposed to nest the whole story. The protagonist Madesha (Shivarajkumar) comes to city to earn money to look after his poor mother. But the innocent village lad gets trapped into underworld without his knowledge and soon gets the tag of underworld 'don'. During the course, his mother Bhagyamma (Arundathi Nag) comes to city in search of her son. The gap thickens with incident after incident… The search, the anticipation and the hope of the mother and son to find each other in the crowded city form rest of the story.

It works primarily because it holds your attention with the climax hitting you emotionally and unpredictably. The first half mainly deals with flashbacks while the post interval portions is gripping. The plot intensifies towards the climax, when the unexpected happens. Jogi clearly reflects the homework of director Prem - be the usage of colloquial Kannada from Kollegal area or the hideouts and lifestyle of underworld goons. However, though this story is daringly different from his debut film Kariya, one can see some traces of that movie. It also looks unrealistic to see the innocence in a person dealing with lethal weapons! Stunning performance by Shivarajkumar and the role of an ideal mother by Arundathi Nag are just amazing. Jennifer Kotwal as a young journo looks cute but lacks experience. Another hero of the movie is Gurukiran. His music steals the show and so is the background scoring.

Though the camera work by Seenu is good, at times its too shaky and the fails to maintain the richness throughout. On the whole, Jogi is a good entertainer - thanks to the astonishing work of every artiste and technician.

Direction: Prem
Producer: P. Krishna Prasad
Music: Gurukiran
Cinematography: Seenu
Cast: Shivarajkumar, Arundhatinag, Jennifer Kotwal, Ramesh Bhat, Yana Gupta, Chandru, Raghu etc