Review : JNU – Jahangir National University showcases university campus politics!
Political ideologies are aplenty in India and a lot of people take to politics as a profession. The ‘training’ starts from the early age and student politics in colleges and universities beings the bases. Jawaharlal Nehru University aka #JNU in Delhi is constantly in a spotlight for it’s political happenings. Left wing politics led by communists have been ruling this University and right wing politics has been vehemently opposing their ideologies. Now movie with the same acronym, i.e. JNU with a full form ‘Jahangir National University’, hits the screens. The film delves into the entrenched presence of communist and Naxalite ideologies at JNU, illustrating how they have shaped student perspectives for many years. It reveals how these ideologies are exploited to promote anti-national sentiments and incite violence under the guise of freedom of speech and expression.
Sourabh Sharma (Siddharth Bodke) gets admission in prestigious JNU, Jahangir National University which is rife with students politics wherein left wingers have dominance. He protests against their biased thinking but is opposed by the ruling students union which has a support of a few professors at the university including Yuvedita Menon (Rashami Desai). Sourabh along with his mentor Akhilesh Pathak (Kunj Anand) and co-student Richa Sharma (Urvashi Rautela) decides to fight anti- national units at the university. The one-upmanship of both the units and what transpires around it forms the crux of the story.
The film broadly depicts the ideological ‘war’ between two wings and most of the scenes seem to have been taken from the ‘real’ happenings in JNU. The director Vinay Sharma relates the story without any bias and has successfully put forward the views of both the sides. The film could have been better in technical departments. Though cinematography is good and music helps the narration. Siddharth Bodke steals the show with his powerful display of emotions and his body language too supports his character. Urvashi Rautela looks beautiful but has a limited screen time. She is passable. Vijay Raj and Ravi Kishan extract laughter even in miniscule screen time. Rashami Desai does justice to her gray shaded character. Jennifer Paccinato as Nyra does a good job. She looks ravishing on screen and has done justice to her London returned character. Others lend good support.
JNU, Jahangir National University, is a political drama-thriller movie which throws light on the ongoing activities, national and anti national, in an University campus.
Rating : ***
By Keerti Kadam