The tag ‘Natural Actor’ sits on Nani well. This aspect is reinforced in the Telugu movie, Jersey.
That, after a plethora of attempts at larger-than-life portrayals, he has returned to his Amol Palekarisque role brings great relief to his audience.
This is what he does best and not the Krishnagadi…Krishnarjuna etc. etc. kind of movies. (Perhaps the word Krishna doesn’t suit him?)
Neither Nani nor the movie fight shy of portraying the hero in a grey shade, a rarity in Telugu movies where even heroes over 50 want to show themselves as young and inviolable. In this movie, Nani’s age is a year older than what he actually is in his real life. He allows himself to be amidst 19-year-old youngsters bringing forth the stark difference in age and physical sprightliness.
As is his wont, he doesn’t seem to act. He lives the role. He portrays a successful but an arrogant cricketer who loses both, cricket and a government job, giving up the former and suspended from the latter. He now sits moping at home watching cricket and, in general, wasting time as his wife works, albeit reluctantly, in a job that doesn’t pay her much and in which she is humiliated from time to time.
But his love for his son keeps him going. Nani must have had an emotional attachment to the role as he named his reel son Nani and himself Arjun (his son’s name in real life) in the movie.
The son’s simple wish of getting the Indian jersey for his birthday is what forms the premise of the film. Nani feels humiliated and helpless as he sees himself unable to fulfil his son’s one wish.
The awakening happens when his wife catches him taking money from her purse. That triggers the end to his inaction. He now wants to do something about his life instead of whiling away his time hoping to get back his job (by bribing the lawyer, which he refuses to).
Nani has played the role seemingly with lot of ease. In reality, how hard he must have worked, how much he must have practised to get those perfect shots with his bat. Not once does he make you feel he is a novice at cricket. At the same time, he allows his efforts to be noticed in his attempts to fit in and show himself as physically fit as the 19-year-old cricketers.
The movie is simple with no twists and turns. The hero tries to shed his looser label and fulfil a purpose in life. The journey from an insignificant existence to a meaningful one is what makes it so endearing to the audience. Plus, the fact that Nani is one of us, adds to the appeal.
The heroine, Shraddha Srinath’s acting was a little forced as she doesn’t have much to do but keep yelling at Nani. The kid is cute, a tad too cute perhaps. The cuteness factor could be turned down a little to concentrate more on some unspoken moments between father and son.
Sathyaraj as Nani’s coach and mentor is brilliant. Brahmaji, Rao Ramesh and Sampath Raj do well in their cameos.
There are times when you feel the movie is pursuing too many sub-plots. The more the sub-plots, the greater the difficulty in tying them together and bring them to a cohesive end.
Go watch for the Nani who was before Krishna etc…you will find him again in this movie.
After the director takes you to a crescendo in the post-interval portion of the film, the end was a definite let-down.
What works for the movie is the sincere efforts of the director, Gowtham Tinnanuri, a relative novice who knows how to cash in on Nani’s histrionics.
For me Jersey is a 3.5/5 experience.
