Jatadhara Movie Review

He may have scored only a very few hits but more often than not, Sudheer Babu’s films end up being termed as honest attempts irrespective of their fate at the box office. After releasing Harom Hara and Maa Nanna Superhero in 2024, he teamed up with ZEE Studios and the producer, Prerna Arora, for Jatadhara, a supernatural action-adventure film. Bollywood actress, Sonakshi Sinha was roped in to do a crucial role in the film and Divya Khosla Kumar, was roped in to play the female lead. Two directors, Venkat Kalyan & Abhishek Jaiswal, directed the film. Did Sudheer Babu, score a hit with Jatadhara? Did the current trend of mythological socio fantasy genre, help Sudheer Babu to get back on a successful streak? How did Sonakshi Sinha, perform in her Telugu debut film? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed but it can be neutralised, is the core point the makers wanted to convey through the film with the backdrop of ghosts and supernatural powers, along with devotional Drama. Shiva(Sudheer Babu), a youngster who does not believe in ghosts, gets himself into a situation where he has to fight against the biggest of ghosts/evil, Dhanapisachini(Sonakshi Sinha), to feel the souls of his parents. How are Shiva’s parents related to Dhanapisachini? Will Shiva fight against all the odds and eventually kill Dhanapisachini? What is the backstory of Dhanapisachini? Why has she wanted to kill Shiva since his birth? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

The film has Sudheer Babu, Sonakshi Sinha, Divya Khosla Kumar and at least seven to eight notable actors but almost everyone delivered a pretty bad performance. Everyone looked out of the place and was uninterested. There’s nothing much actors can do with a badly written script and with two directors who seemed to have no knowledge about direction.

Technicalities:

Jatadhara was a collective failure from almost all the technicians who worked on the film. The music, the cinematography, the editing, the visual effects, the writing, the direction and everyone else, tried to outperform each other in delivering the worst possible output. There is literally no positive technical aspect to talk about.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Nothing

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Terrible Story
2.⁠ ⁠Terrible Screenplay
3.⁠ ⁠Terrible Direction
4.⁠ ⁠Terrible Performances
5.⁠ ⁠Terrible Music
6.⁠ ⁠Etc., etc., etc.

Analysis:

The film industry is a business where the success rate is only around 10%. So, the probability of watching a bad film is around nine times bigger than watching a good film. When review writers step into a theatre to watch a movie, they usually go with the least possible expectations. More often than not, we will get an idea about the fate of a film by watching the teaser and trailer of a film. The makers of, Jatadhara, released a teaser, a trailer and a release trailer, to promote the film. You can understand how bad the film is going to be, by looking at the teaser and trailer itself. Even if you step into the theatre with the least of expectations, Jatadhara will struggle to reach your expectations. Bad is an understatement to describe the film.

How not to write the story of a film? How not to write the screenplay of the film? How not to direct a film? How not to edit a film? How not to score music for a film? How not to use visual effects for film? How not to act in a film? More importantly, how not to produce a film? – Jatadhara is the answer to all the above questions. In a film with two hours and fifteen minutes of runtime, there was not even a single decent watchable sequence. And, even after watching the film completely, you still don’t understand what the makers wanted to convey to the audience. It is surprising to know that the film was directed by two directors. And, at the end of the movie, the makers had the audacity to give a lead sequence for a possible prequel or a sequel. Seriously? Nobody. Literally, nobody in the cast and crew seemed to have a clue about what they were doing throughout the film.

It looked as if someone in the production department had somehow convinced ZEE Studios to allocate them some budget. And then, they hired all their friends as cast and crew and made a mockery of a film. All we get to see is scene after scene without any connection or emotional depth. You get to see a ghost hunting sequence and then suddenly, you get to see some family emotional Drama and then, out of nowhere you get to see an item song. On top of everything, there’s Sonakshi Sinha whose only job in the film is to scream. There was a dialogue during the climax of the film where the heroine says the following to the hero – ‘Your parents can now rest in peace’. Multiple people in the theatre responded by saying – ‘Not his parents. It is we, the audience, who has to step out of the theatre and rest in peace for some time’.

You may wonder if this is a review of the film or a rant about the film. This indeed is a rant because there’s nothing to write about the film. If we have to describe the film in just one sentence, it should be ‘the worst film of the year’. Do yourself a favour by staying away from this terrible film not just in theatres but on television or on any other platform.

Jatadhara – Terrible

Rating – 1.25/5