One line to describe Pavan Kalyan’s Jalsa in Indian context would be “paisa vasool picture”. It’s 3 hours of hardcore entertainment for Pavan’s fans and to the general public alike and you will find it hard to come away from the movie saying you were bored or hated it. In fact there is nothing you cannot find not entertaining in Jalsa, but then again it’s no masterpiece, just pure high octane entertainment Pavan Kalyan style.
The movie begins with Mahesh Babu (only voice over) introducing his good friend Sanjay Sahu (Pavan Kalyan) and Mahesh Babu begins by saying "Yudham lo gelavatam ante shatruvuni champatam kadu, shatruvuni oodinchina vaade nijamaina yodhudu, alanti naa snehithudu Sanjay Sahu" and Pavan Kalyan is shown as a young man who is in love with Kamalinee Mukherji and as it always happens in our movies with the girl being rich and the hero being poor, daddy dearest of the girl puts a spoke in the wheel of romance and refuses to marry his daughter to poor pauper Pavan Kalyan. Daddy dearest here is played by Prakash Raj who turns in an excellent performance especially in the comedy scenes with Pavan Kalyan. What’s different in Jalsa is that in the very next scene Pavan Kalyan attends the marriage of Kamalinee Mukherji with another guy and then we fast forward a year and Pavan Kalyan is studying in college and drinking on a daily basis very aptly described by Mahesh Babu again. It‘s time for the heroines Ileana and Parvathi Melton to make an entry and this they do playing squash (very badly), but looking great in sportswear. Predictably because of their attire they get chased by baddies and as expected Pavan Kalyan comes to their rescue in heavy downpour and drunk to the core and thrashes all the bad guys and even sends the main leader of the gang into a coma. Now it’s time for both the ladies Ileana and Parvathi Melton to fall for Pavan Kalyan and here Parvathi Melton takes the lead being brighter of the two. Ileana in fact is depicted as dumb and a slow learner in the movie and she does suit and play the part fairly well enough. Pavan Kalyan though throws in the towel for Ileana and both end up in love.
It’s time for the villain to make his entry and the main baddy in this movie is Mukesh Rishi obviously with factional background, but now in jail and who runs his empire from within the jail. He is introduced in a land grabbing scene where he takes on the mafia from Pune/Mumbai and absolutely decimates the mafia showing how ruthless and powerful Mukesh Rishi is. He is ably supported by Tanikella Bharani as his right hand man. The first half of the movie is a breezy entertainer filled with comedy, songs, and a few fights thrown in. Towards the interval Pavan Kalyan’s friend Ali is attacked by a group and Pavan Kalyan steps in and thrashes all the bad guys and in a powerful confrontation reveals he is a former Naxalite.
Post-interval we learn how Pavan Kalyan comes from a poor family of farmers, how he loses his younger brother in his childhood to illness with not being able to afford treatment and later on in life how his father consumes pesticide when the crops fail and also ends up losing his mother. In his frustration over life and society, Pavan Kalyan ends up becoming a Naxalite, but still questions the ethics of the Naxalites when it comes to killing innocent civilians in their war against the establishment. Pavan Kalyan grows up in the Naxalite cadre and ends up becoming a leader of a group and this group has a run in with the police led by Prakash Raj. Prakash Raj captures Pavan Kalyan and takes him hostage, but after some comedy between both of them and a turn of events Pavan Kalyan takes Prakash Raj hostage. Finally both end up befriending each other and as a result Pavan Kalyan gives up being a Naxalite and returns to mainstream society after he saves a minister from a landmine put in by his own group.
Flashback over we learn that Ileana too is Prakash Raj’s daughter and we see a replay of the initial scene where Prakash Raj this time refuses to give Pavan Kalyan his younger daughter Ileana. We also learn at this time that Mukesh Rishi is looking for Pavan Kalyan to take revenge on him and kill him since the guy Pavan Kalyan initially sent into coma at the beginning of the movie happens to be Mukesh Rishi’s younger son. Meanwhile Prakash Raj fixes up an alliance for his younger daughter Ileana with Shivaji and we have the entry of Brahmanandham as a head constable and bodyguard of Ileana to keep Pavan Kalyan away from her. Brahmanandham’s performance is top of the line in this movie and he really keeps us in splits with his comedy.
Time for the action to begin, we learn that Shivaji is actually Mukesh Rishi’s elder son and that Mukesh Rishi wants Ileana to marry his elder son since Pavan Kalyan is in love with Ileana. Mukesh Rishi takes Ileana by force to marry his elder son Shivaji and now Prakash Raj goes to Pavan Kalyan and asks for his help to rescue his daughter Ileana. Now for the big fight, it’s up to our hero Pavan Kalyan to rescue his love Ileana and to settle scores with Mukesh Rishi. The final fight is set in a stadium and predictably Mukesh Rishi turns up with truck loads of factionist goons all dressed in white and Pavan Kalyan leads the charge solo armed with a Samurai sword an encore to his climax fight in Kushi. Pavan Kalyan defeats all the villains, but does not kill anyone and we are reminded of what Mahesh Babu says in introducing his friend Pavan Kalyan "Yudham lo gelavatam ante shatruvuni champatam kadu, shatruvuni oodinchina vaade nijamaina yodhudu”.
