James movie review: Puneeth Rajkumar's final film is an uneven but stylised sendoff

Language: Kannada Chethan Kumar’s  James  ends as most commercial films do, with the hero winning and the bad guys losing. Then roll the post-credits, where we usually get a peek into the making of the film. That happens here as well, but the screen splits to make space for the late Puneeth Rajkumar’s accolades, the things that supposedly make him the superstar he was/is. Go back to the making video, and you see a warm Rajkumar, always trying to make the people around him comfortable. There can be many reasons for someone to be famous, but if you are trying to understand how and why a star, a stranger, is loved the way he is, you do not have to look beyond the footage of Rajkumar, with a smile plastered on his face.   The film is about Santosh [Rajkumar], a guy who runs a security firm. He is called to protect Vijay Gayakwad [Srikanth], a drug lord, from an imminent threat from the other drug lords, one of whom is played by Sarath Kumar. He has a romance brewing with Vijay’s sister, Nisha Gayakwad [Priya Anand] but it is neither here nor there. The interval block reveals an interesting backstory, and the rest of the film is about who Santosh is and what motivates him to do what he does.   As far as the writing goes, there is no originality in it. It feels like a story we have seen before, and we probably have. The dialogues in the opening few minutes of the film are exclusively expository. You know how in a masala film, the hero gets multiple introductions. Here, even the villains get multiple introductions. I can appreciate a star whose ego accommodates equal treatment, but it becomes a slouch after a point.  

Speaking of which, Puneeth Rajkumar is a unique star hero. He gets all the noise — raring BGM, slow-mo shots, endless praises, and he welcomes it too, but he always brushes it off in the end.

Despite the commotion, he never comes off as arrogant, but dutiful. Even when he signals the girl he has been manipulating to shut up, you find it hard to dislike him because he does not look like a guy who would do that unless there is a reason. Persona goes a long way with a superstar, and this man had it in kilos. Priya Anand’s love interest is not written interestingly so she barely registers her presence. On the other hand, Srikanth is excellent and quite sharp-looking too, as the generic bad guy.     Under different circumstances, a better film could have been made. In fact, the potential for a better one is evident in the treatment of the second half. It is more focused and calmer, with many genuinely memorable scenes. The friendship angle too works. The film is not only impressively shot and edited but also produced. Most of the sets, even if elaborate, are classy and pristine. You cannot/should not ask a commercial film why a chemical lab is filled with smoke; you just see if it adds to the ambience. It does. The fight sequences in the first half are marvellous, not just because of Chethan D’souza’s stunts, but the way Deepu S Kumar edits them adds so much energy. Even if you can accuse Swamy J Gowda’s camera of taking too many aerial shots, it works well within the genre.   James  is not a typical film. You can see that in the way the second half had to resort to CGI to make up for Puneeth’s absence. It would be a reason to call it technically shoddy in any other movie but here, it stands as a sad reminder of an actor’s sudden demise, and a team trying to work around it. That is why I cannot deem it bad despite my problems with the film. The context dictates that I should not judge it at all. Look at  James  as an individual film, and you will most likely be disappointed. But see it for what it is, a people coming together to celebrate Rajkumar’s large yet short life, and you will be moved to tears like I was.   James is playing in cinemas. Rating: **1/2

Sankeertana Varma is an engineer who took a few years to realise that bringing two lovely things, movies and writing, together is as great as it sounds. Mainly writes about Telugu cinema.

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