Review by Jithindurden

The second film by Dijo Jose Antony and he has improved a lot. But one of the things that can be noticed in his first feature Queen itself is that he wants to talk about important things and let the emotion of it spread to the audience and it should be conveyed to every single one of them. He's ready to sacrifice some logic and reality for these emotions. He makes it a point to present these issues on the nose and as dramatic as possible. Queen became a big commercial success for such a small movie even though the critics saw all the problems that were definitely in it. But still, it can't be denied how successful it was at what it set out to be.

Jana Gana Mana works very similarly in that regard. There are many points in the film which are exaggerated just for the dramatic effect and unless you are able to be accepting the emotional side and not the real world logic, especially in the courtroom scenes, the movie will be a disappointment.

Despite all these issues, the movie is grounded in almost every other aspect. The top-notch acting, specifically by the two leads and the plot itself makes it a compelling watch. Touching upon all the important issues faced by the common people in the country, touching too many nerves due to which the movie ended up banned in a lot of North Indian states, the movie is a bold statement about the state of the country.

The way the movie moved through the two protagonists through the two halves was very cleverly done so that the paradigm shift really allows the audience to see the broader picture. The way they made the audience root for things is really commendable as it shows exactly how the world works and why it shouldn't be that way. The movie is made in a way so that its messages can be reached everywhere and also makes sure to teach them to be able to question things. For a movie that is gonna be labelled as something that doesn't consider the audience intelligent enough to comprehend everything unless spelt out, it makes the exact case of why the audience around the world isn't really collectively intelligent and even those who ask for the intelligent narration won't be able to deny those facts.

There would be a kind of hate that would be easily faced by this movie. The way the movie dealt with those political aspects is enough for the filmmakers to be proud about it due to the truth in the fiction.