Cast: Nandamuri Kalyan Ram, Aditi Arya, Jagapathi Babu, Thanikella and Vennela Kishore
Director: Puri Jagannadh
Puri Jagannath and Nandamuri Kalyan Ram teamed up for the fist time for ‘Ism’. Puri Jagan, whose films always create a buzz, has introduced Aditi Arya as the female lead with this film.
In an Island near Morocco, India’s most wanted mafia don Javed Ibrahim (Jagapathi Babu), lives with his daughter Alia Khan (Aditi Arya). He also owns a bank where many bigwigs from India stash their black money.
Then there is Sultan (Kalyan Ram), who fights for money. He sees Alia (Aditi Arya) and immediately proposes to her. But Alia rebuffs his proposal and Sultan befriends Javed Ibrahim. Sultan asks Javed to help him propose to his girlfriend without telling him that that it is his own daughter.
Finally Javed learns the truth and also realises that Sultan is after his daughter because he wants to know the secret password to hack into his bank accounts. He also comes to know that Sultan is not a fighter but a journalist from India who wants to catch him.
How the journalist fights the mafia don and at the same time the Indian political system to get back the black money is the crux of the story.
Director Puri Jagannath has hit upon a great idea for ‘Ism’, but the implementation has gone wrong. The idea to get back black money is a current topic, but when it comes to narration, the director is only half successful. He follows the same old formula though the subject is new.
The film is more interesting in the last half hour, as it reaches the climax. In the first half the protagonist is only pursuing the lead actress with typical words of Puri Jagan like ‘eme’, ‘osey’ and ‘pove’. The director touches the core point only in the second half when the journalist reveals the names of black-marketers through his ‘GrandLeaks’. May be this is the first time a director has come up with a film based on the famous WikiLeaks.
But the screenplay is not up to the mark and is not interesting.
When it comes to performance, Kalyan Ram steals the show. He has undergone a complete makeover and has worked hard. He is at his best in the climax scene.
Jagapathi as the don Javed Ibrahim is not really effective. Aditi Arya’s debut is just ok and she has to work on her emotions.
Anups’ music is good. The cinematography is very affective and one sees some great shots of the island.
The dialogues are good only in the climax scenes where Kalyan Ram explains about black money, farmers and touches upon other issues.
On the whole, Ism is not up to the mark as though Puri Jagannath has come up with a new subject, he hasn’t been able to pull it off properly. It’s a typical Puri kind of films.
