Jana Gana Mana
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDijo Jose Antony
Written bySharis Mohammed
Produced bySupriya Menon
Listin Stephen
Starring
Narrated byMammootty
CinematographySudeep Elamon
Edited bySreejith Sarang
Music byJakes Bejoy
Production
companies
Prithviraj Productions
Magic Frames
Distributed byMagic Frames
Release date
  • 28 April 2022 (2022-04-28)
Running time
165 minutes[1]
CountryIndia
LanguageMalayalam
Box officeest. ₹50 crore[2]

Jana Gana Mana (transl. The Minds of All People) is a 2022 Indian Malayalam-language legal thriller film directed by Dijo Jose Antony and starring Prithviraj Sukumaran, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Pasupathi Raj, G. M. Sundar, Mamta Mohandas, Sri Divya. The music was composed by Jakes Bejoy with cinematography by Sudeep Elamon and editing by Sreejith Sarang. The film released on 28 April 2022[3] to positive reviews for its narrative style, cast performances, and technical aspects.[4]

Plot

The possible murder of Prof. Saba Mariyam, a strong and socially-responsible college professor from the Central University in Ramanagaram, leads to protests organized by the college students led by Gouri Lakshmi, who wants to seek justice for Saba's death. They get brutally suppressed by the state police. This incident evokes strong protests and demonstrations against police brutality across the country. Under pressure, the Karnataka government appoints ACP Sajjan Kumar to solve Saba's murder case.

When Sajjan starts investigating the case, he finds that four people had burnt her to death and arrests them, but before he could present them before the court, he gets taken off the case. This is because of certain wheels that have been turned in the top police tiers as a consequence of the political connections of the accused. Out of desperation that they might escape judicial punishment, Sajjan takes them to a location under the guise of recreating the crime for evidence and shoots them to death. The encounter leads to Sajjan becoming a hero in the eyes of the public. However, a few human rights activists file a complaint against the encounter, which leads to a court case.

The defense is represented by Adv. Aravind Swaminathan, who reveals to the court and the entire country that this entire case was a huge plot by the Karnataka government to retain their position in the coming elections and the mastermind behind the plan was Sajjan. In reality, Saba was killed by a colleague Vidyasagar, against whom she had filed charges for treating a student Vidya badly because of her caste and her subsequent suicide, by running his car over her and that this mere hit and run case had become the national headline the very next day. When this news reached the Home Minister Nageshwara Rao, he got advised by Sajjan to use this as an opportunity to gain popular support in the coming elections as the IB reports states that Nageshwara Rao's party will lose power.

Sajjan gets arrested, but in another turn of events, it is revealed that it was he himself who gave all the details of his wrongdoings to Aravind through his fellow police officer Murthy, out of guilt. This was his chance at redemption. Sajjan is now in prison where Murthy meets him and reveals about Vidyasagar's arrest and Aravind's past. Aravind was a former DCP who went against Nageshwara Rao and suffered personal losses of losing his wife Padma and was sent to prison on false charges. After learning about Saba's case from Murthy, Aravind used this case to destroy Nageshwara Rao's life as vengeance. Aravind gets rid of his crutches and prepares himself to kill Nageshwara Rao.

Cast

Production

The film is produced by Supriya Menon and Listin Stephen. The film stars Prithviraj Sukumaran, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Pasupathi Raj, G. M. Sundar and Mamta Mohandas.

Music

The music of the film is composed by Jakes Bejoy.

No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Aalum Thee"SharfuJakes Bejoy, Akhil J. Chand3:51
2."Etho Tharattin"Jyothish T. KashiJakes Bejoy, Sooraj Santhosh4:01
3."Nila"Jyothish T. KashiAavani Malhar2:52
4."Jana Gana Mana Anthem"Joe Paul, Raqeeb AlamJakes Bejoy, Shankar Mahadevan, Shatadru Kabir4:12

Release

Theatrical

Jana Gana Mana released on 28 April 2022. The film was previously scheduled to release in late 2021, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The film was released in Malayalam along with the dubbed version in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.[5]

Home media

The digital streaming rights of the film were bought by Netflix and streaming started from 2 June 2022.[6][7]

Reception

Critical response

Jana Gana Mana received positive reviews from critics and audience alike. Deepa Soman of The Times of India gave the film 3.5 out of 5 writing "Those who love a good political crime thriller inspired from real-life incidents can feast on Jana Gana Mana, that teaches you to think, question, challenge and more as a common man who consumes news at its face value."[8] Pinkvilla gave 3.5/5 and wrote, An engaging Social drama about social conscience and asking the right questions. The Indian Express wrote "Prithviraj steals the show in this preachy and patronising political thriller".[9] The New Indian express wrote "Prithviraj-starrer is an epic, high-impact political thriller".[10] Ancy K Sunny of The Week rated 3.5 out of 5 and wrote "Suraj Venjaramoodu steals the show in a thought-provoking political thriller".[11] Sreeju Sudhakaran of LatestLY gave the film a rating of 3/5 and wrote "Prithviraj Sukumaran, Suraj Venjaramoodu's Film Makes All The Right Noises in a Wobbly, Cramped Screenplay".[12]

The film is loosely based on several real-life incidents of extrajudicial killings in India, including the 2016 suicide of Rohith Vemula, 2018 murder of a tribal man in Kerala,[13] the 2019 Hyderabad gang rape case and the 2019 suicide of Fathima Latheef.[14][15][16]

Sequel

On 29 March 2022, during the press event of the film, Prithviraj revealed that the pre-production works of the sequel of the film had already begun. He also revealed that the visuals featured in the teaser and trailer of the film were from the second part of the film. The first part would primarily feature flashback sequences while the second part would feature the story taking place during the current time.[17]

References

  1. ↑ "Jana Gana Mana". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
  2. ↑ "'Jana Gana Mana' box office collection day 26: Prithviraj starrer enters the 50-crore club". The Times of India. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  3. ↑ "Prithviraj starrer 'Jana Gana Mana': Makers announce the release date". Times Of India. 6 March 2022. Archived from the original on 20 March 2020. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  4. ↑ "Jana Gana Mana Movie Review: Twitterati Declare Prithviraj Sukumaran, Suraj Venjaramood's Malayalam Film A Well-Written Thriller". LatestLY. 28 April 2022.
  5. ↑ "Jana Gana Mana (2022) - Movie | Reviews, Cast & Release Date in vijayawada - BookMyShow". in.bookmyshow.com. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  6. ↑ "Prithviraj and Suraj Venjaramoodu's Jana Gana Mana to stream on OTT". The News Minute. 27 May 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  7. ↑ "Prithviraj Sukumaran starrer 'Jana Gana Mana' locks its OTT release date". The Times of India. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  8. ↑ "Jana Gana Mana Movie Review: Unveiling the politics of fake encounters", The Times of India, retrieved 29 April 2022
  9. ↑ "Jana Gana Mana movie review: Prithviraj steals the show in this preachy and patronising political thriller". The Indian Express. 28 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  10. ↑ "'Jana Gana Mana' review: Prithviraj-starrer is an epic, high-impact political thriller". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  11. ↑ "'Jana Gana Mana' review: Suraj Venjaramoodu steals the show in a thought-provoking political thriller.KP from KPM rated 5/5 "Mostly inspired from today's India"". The Week. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  12. ↑ "Jana Gana Mana Movie Review: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Suraj Venjaramoodu's Film Makes All The Right Noises in a Wobbly, Cramped Screenplay (LatestLY Exclusive)". LatestLY. 29 April 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
  13. ↑ "2018 Kerala tribal murder: Concerted bid to play down inhuman treatment". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  14. ↑ "Will not be silent; Questions will continue: 'Jana Gana Mana' Review - News8Plus-Realtime Updates On Breaking News & Headlines". 30 April 2022. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  15. ↑ "Jana Gana Mana movie review: Prithviraj steals the show in this preachy and patronising political thriller". The Indian Express. 28 April 2022. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  16. ↑ "ജനഗണമന : ഒരു പ്രതിരോധസിനിമ | റിവ്യൂ | മുഹമ്മദ് സ്വാലിഹ്". athma online. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  17. ↑ "Prithviraj Sukumaran announces a sequel for 'Jana Gana Mana'". Times Of India. 29 March 2022. Archived from the original on 20 March 2020. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
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