Junga review: Comedy entertainer that works only in parts

Director Gokul, who delivered the hit Itharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara (2013) with Vijay Sethupathi, joined hands with the actor for the second time for Junga, another comedy entertainer.

Junga and Itharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara are both similar yet different. While Gokul retains the North Madras slang of Tamil, which he used to good effect in the 2013 film, he does not confine the setting of Junga's story to the lower-middle class neighbourhood of the city. In fact, Junga, for most part is based in Paris, France. That apart, the lead character Junga (Sethupathi) has an ambition in this film, unlike the protagonist of Itharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara, Sumar Moonji Kumar, who whiles away his time.

Without much ado, let's get on with Junga.

Junga works as a conductor in a bus service that operates in a little known town. The man has a photographic memory, which means he can recall faces and other images he has seen only once. His observation skills too are exceptionally sharp and he uses them to good effect to remember who has bought tickets and who hasn't. In short, Junga is a content person, primarily because of the fact that the girl he loves (Madonna Sebastian), travels everyday in his bus. 

One day, a passenger tries to impress the girl by taking a leaf out of the hit film Mouna Ragam (1986). He parks his bike in front of the bus and sits next to her, troubling her. Junga, who is until then known to be quite calm and civil, rises to her defence. In his eagerness to protect the girl, he gives the baddies a sound thrashing and discovers how aggressive and powerful he can be. 

When news of the manner in which he thrashed the baddies reaches his mother (Saranya Ponvannan), she worries that he too will turn a don like his father and grandfather and thereby squander away all their wealth. Junga's mother tells him that Lingaa and Ranga (his grandfather and father, respectively) were both dons who had a habit of showing off. They would spend ten times the amount they charged for a task on performing the task itself.

For instance, if they were asked to threaten someone and were being paid Rs4000 for it, they would take along goons in almost 20 Sumo vehicles for the job. The cost of the operation would be over Rs40,000!

As if this wasn't enough, the dons would throw a success party every time somebody entrusted them with a task. This way, the duo squandered away all the family wealth. In the end, the family had to give away the only theatre they owned for a cheap sum of Rs4 lakh to a Chettiar (Suresh Menon). 

When Junga learns all of this, he is determined to become a don too. He tells his mom that he will go to Chennai, become a don, make money and buy back the theatre that his father sold at a throwaway price to the Chettiar. 

Junga arrives in the city with the sole intention of making money. He turns not only into a don, but also a miser and begins to save money in any and every way possible. At one point, he manages to save over Rs1 crore and decides it is time to go and buy back his theatre from the Chettiar, who is by now a very rich man. Junga is insulted by the Chettiar instead. In a fit of rage, Junga stomps out of the Chettiar's palatial mansion determined to get back his theatre.

Junga looks for ways he can have a upper hand in the negotiations with the Chettiar. It is then that he remembers having seen the picture of a girl at the Chettiar's residence. He asks the theatre's manager (Delhi Ganesh) about the girl and learns that it is the picture of the Chettiar's daughter Yazhini (Sayyeshaa Saigal). 

Delighted that the Chettiar has a weakness he can exploit, Junga decides to kidnap the girl to bring the Chettiar on his knees. He asks the manager the whereabouts of the girl and learns that she is in Paris. With his deputy Yo Yo (Yogi Babu) by his side, he hurries to Parrys Corner in Chennai and searches for the girl. After searching for a while, he calls up the manager to ask for the precise locations. He tells him he is in Parrys but unable to find the girl.

The manager (who is quite shocked that the man has managed to reach Paris in half-an-hour from Chennai) asks him how he managed to travel so swiftly to France. It is then that Junga realises that the girl he is looking for is studying in France, another country. The miserly don and his loyal but dumb deputy decide to fly to France to kidnap the girl. What happens next is what Junga is all about.

Like the directors of most other comedies, Gokul, too, seems to believe that he can give logic a miss if he is making a comedy entertainer. 

Sample this: When Junga learns that Yazhini is being held captive in a place that he knows nothing about, he begins to enquire about the cheapest way to get there. When he finds the cheapest mode of transport itself would be costly, he decides to swim all the way to the place to save money. The temperature of the river is a freezing five degrees and the man does not even know where the river is heading. Despite all this, he correctly ends up at the place where Yazhini is being held hostage. This is one of the many atrocious, illogical  sequences that you are bound to witness in the film.

The film's biggest strength is Vijay Sethupathi, who combines well with comedian Yogi Babu, to tickle your ribs with his antics. Be it the manner in which he and Yogi Babu sell spoonfuls of rice for exhorbitant sums on the plane to Paris, or the manner in which he gets a panic attack when he realises that he has bought clothes for Rs18 lakhs instead of Rs18,000 or the was he chooses to save on food costs by filling a suitcase full of snacks kept in the hotel, Sethupathi is funny and fascinating. He is complemented well by Yogi Babu, who plays the perfect deputy to a miserly don. 

This is the second time that Yogi Babu and Sethupathi are working together, after comedy Aandavan Kattalai (2016). That film worked well with the audiences only because of the antics the two seasoned artistes enacted. Junga, too, is funny but does not surpass Aandavan Kattalai.

Sayyessha Saigal is pretty and does a neat job with her character. Vijaya, the elderly lady who plays Vijay Sethupathi's grandmother in the film also deserves praise for her performance. She steals the show with a sparkling act that commands respect. 

The music of the film is just about fine, but the cinematography is breathtaking and induces an urge to head to Paris to expereince its beauty.

On the whole, Junga is a film that works in parts. One is bound to find it reasonably good if one does not mind the illogical sequences in it.