For want of a Jersey, a film was made..

(Image courtesy: imdb.com)

The harsh Indian summer seems to be a serendipitous time for me to stumble upon good Telugu movies; last year, it was Mahanati, the biopic of actress Savitri and this year it is Jersey, the fictional story of a local cricketer’s struggles to get a place in the national team. If Mahanati was about the one person who got her fair share of fame, Jersey, as the movie self proclaims, is about the ninety-nine other people who didn’t, despite being deserving.

It is difficult to describe the story succinctly without giving away too much of the plot, but I’ll try. Former cricketer Arjun (Nani) who is married to longtime sweetheart Sarah (Shraddha Srinath) and father to Nani (Ronit Kamra) is unemployed, irresponsible and in his wife’s words ‘ a quitter’. Having quit cricket rather abruptly, he cuts cords with the game to the extent that he refuses the position of junior coach offered to him multiple times by his coach Murthy (Sathyaraj). Sarah is an overworked, exasperated wife who can’t bear to see her husband while away his time in smoking, drinking or just lazing around with no focus in life. Arjun’s son, Nani is the only one in the film who openly loves and supports his father, and, despite his baby talk, behaves maturely. The rest of the film focuses on Arjun’s attempts to get a place on the Indian National cricket team at the age of 36 for his son. The title ‘Jersey’ ostensibly comes from Nani’s relentless demands for an Indian cricket jersey and Arjun’s efforts to get him one, and the jersey is the driving force of the film, as is evident by the deeply touching ending. Keep your handkerchiefs ready, that’s all I’m saying. #NoSpoilers

Telugu films are notorious for glorifying the hero by styling the hero in branded costumes, making him fight ten people at once without breaking into a sweat and dancing with the hottest women around. This film is no different - it does glorify Nani, but with cricket. And that is the kind of glorification I’d watch any day.

In Jersey, Nani completely justifies his ‘Natural star’ epithet, and absolutely lives the part. As the successful 26-year-old swashbuckling cricketer, he exudes confidence, bravado, and fearlessness, while as a 36-year-old married yet unemployed man and father of a five-year-old son, he is weak-minded, vulnerable, insecure and irresponsible. He is invincible as the young cricketer and exhausted as the old one. His face plays a range of emotions, and all it takes is the twitch of an eyebrow. Watch out for a deeply angsty scene at a railway station - it is the actor at his finest. Nani even plays cricket effortlessly, as though he lives a double life as a cricketer! He is the Ranveer Singh of the Telugu industry, or maybe Ranveer Singh is Bollywood’s Nani. Both men aren't either gorgeously good-looking or come from a particular lineage, but man, can they act!

A film is only as good as its writing, and Jersey just proves that point. The story ends exactly where it begins, all the characters get their own closure and nobody unnecessary begins to sing and dance because, well, in real life, that doesn’t happen! The dialogues are crisp, witty and colloquial, and are not intended for massy whistles. All the comedy bits come solely from the dialogues, without the aid of weird music, double entendres or weirdly dressed characters.

A moment here for the production team for getting everything from the cricketing jerseys, to the BPL ads, to DD News right on point. Huge points to the cinematographers and the camera teams as well, for capturing the beautiful panoramas of Hyderabad’s LB Stadium, night views of Charminar and the claustrophobia-inducing house of Arjun, Sarah and Nani. The Chak-de format of the back-to-back matches in the last 30 minutes is also quite exciting and adrenaline pumping. International cricket matches should always be broadcast in film theatres!

Unfortunately, my excessive OCD regarding movies always pushes me to nitpick, and in this film too, I must. Anirudh Ravichander’s music (for the uninitiated, he was the guy behind Kolaveri Di), while appealing, is rather loud and sometimes just gives away the scenes. While I loved Shraddha Srinath in U-Turn and liked her character Sarah in Jersey, the scenes with her family or even some scenes with just her didn’t really gel with me. The first half of the movie stretches out a bit and slightly dips in places. Also, the non-Indian folk in this film are just like the non-Indian folk in any Indian film - extra dramatic, overtly arrogant and speaking in an undecipherable accent!.

But minor blips aside, Jersey is a fantastic watch. It might not be premature to call this the best Telugu film of the year. Just go and watch it now!