‘Janaka Aithe Ganaka’ movie review: The courtroom drama is a missed opportunity
The Hindu
‘Janaka Aithe Ganaka’ movie review: An earnest Suhas cannot salvage this messy courtroom drama
Telugu cinema has consistently portrayed stories where protagonists embody middle-class values — from Needi Naadi Oke Katha and Middle Class Melodies to Middle Class Abbayi (MCA) and The Family Star. Interestingly, Dil Raju, the producer behind two of these films, also backs Janaka Aithe Ganaka this week. The Sandeep Reddy Bandla directorial, starring Suhas, aims to acknowledge and appreciate the bread-winners of middle-class households, in the guise of a courtroom drama.
Prasad (Suhas), a married man, is a salesperson for a washing machine manufacturing company. Dissatisfied with having been brought up with compromises, and fearing that he and his wife may not be financially able to raise a child, the couple decide against parenthood, until their decision backfires.
The film takes off in style as Sandeep establishes the interpersonal relationships in Prasad’s family with a hint of satire. Prasad keeps quarrelling with his father Ramana over the latter’s bad real estate investments, shares a love-hate relationship with his grandmother, and buys jalebis for his wife in the evenings. He beats weekday work blues at a bar with a lawyer friend.
A scene where Prasad justifies his reasons for not having a child is a laugh riot. However, after Prasad files a petition against a condom manufacturer and the action shifts to the court, the film falls apart gradually. Moving beyond the slice-of-life, relatable setting, the filmmaker takes too many cinematic liberties to generate (substandard) humour.
Janaka Aithe Ganaka is a film with an identity crisis. It starts by painting a realistic portrait of middle-class life, makes a mess of the courtroom proceedings with weak, vague arguments and caricaturish characters and fails to give any agency to Prasad’s wife. The female lead only smiles, eats jalebis and reiterates the line ‘maa ayana anni chuskuntaru’ (my husband will take care of everything).
Alternating from misleading condom advertisements to livelihood issues, the difficulties of raising a child and problems plaguing the education system, there’s no focus in the storytelling. A pre-interval scene, where a judge is desperate to know more about Prasad’s ‘equation’ with his wife, is in poor taste and raises doubts about the director’s intent.
At no point is Prasad genuinely challenged in the court. It’s surprising how a middle-class man, leading a hand-to-mouth existence, quits his job out impulsively and fights a case in a court with a novice lawyer. The inherent perversion in the characterisation of the advocates representing the condom manufacturer dilutes the story further. Worse, there is an unnecessary, dangerous generalisation about abortion.
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