After two consecutive hits, this is Dhyan's third film. Interestingly, the actor isn't just popular in the ardent Kannada audience, but also among youngsters who watch Kannada films only occasionally.
Jootaata is a remake of Priyadarshan's Malayalam hit Poochekkoru Mookkuththi, also remade successfully in Hindi by the same director as Hungama.
Both Priyadarshan films became hugely popular for their comedy sequences. The plot consists of a deluge of lies and misunderstandings -- a true comedy of errors.
But Jootaata not just falls short of the Malayalam original, but fails to reach the fine standards set by the Hindi film, despite a meticulous and faithful reproduction of the script, along with good performances by character artistes like Rangayana Raghu, Thulasi, and Komal.
The story is about two working adults -- Dhyan and Richa Pallod -- living together in a rented house, forced to pose as husband and wife. As situations develop, they come closer to each other, but don't reveal their inner feelings. Richa is working in an office where her boss -- played by newcomer Akash -- fancies her.
Richa wants to keep everything a secret, even where she stays. Whenever she is picked up or dropped home by her boss, she gets down outside a nearby house, which leads to further confusion. How this one mistake leads to several others, and how numerous other characters get into this web of deceit created by the heroine, forms the rest of the story.
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The film's main strength are the comical situations for which the timing and reactions of the artistes are very important. The timing is well matched in the Malayalam film, but unfortunately has not been even in the Kannada remake.
This is perhaps the main reason why the first half of the film is completely drab in comparison with the highly active and volatile second half. The gaps were effectively filled in the Malayalam and Hindi films by the polished timing from superior artists in the first half of the film. The Kannada remake does not have that.
The main drawback of the film is that all three lead artistes are, at best, mediocre. The film falls flat whenever these artists have their parts, and works only then the more experienced artists are seen.
Dhyan has not still come out from his loverboy image, while Richa Pallod handles all situations with the same emotions. New find Akash can be excused because this is his first film, but for the film's hero, this was a big opportunity.
This negative aspect has been more or less offset by competent performances from artistes like Rangayana Raghu, Thulasi, Komal, Sharan, Suresh and others. The film will be certainly remembered for their work
Another point which is not at par with the earlier made films are the music and the dialogues. Obviously director Shankar has not looked to the original film for its strength in the dialogues. It looks as if the dialogues have simply been translated, and no extraneous contribution is made by the director to strengthen the sequences. Perhaps he was carried away by the comical situations of the film.
R P Patnayak's music is nothing to write home about. Shankar has also not cared to make the film visually attractive as Priyadharshan had done with the Hindi remake.
Jootaata is still enjoyable despite several minus factors, mainly because of a good plot and competent performances from character artistes.
