K. S. Ravindra, who directed Power and Sardaar Gabbar Singh, wields the megaphone again for this typical run-of-the-mill mass masala fare. He joins hands with Jr NTR this time. What is more special about Jai Lava Kusa is that Jr NTR plays a triple role for the very first time.
Jai, Lava and Kusa, all three roles may look identically similar, but they differ a lot character wise. Jai alias Raavan Maharaj is an arrogant and terrifying don, Lava is a soft natured and emotional banker while Kusa is more balanced of the three and a clever con man.
The first half attracts attention only when Junior NTR fights or dances. Only when you lose patience, the story starts getting tighter and racier but this does not happen until the pre-interval block when Jai's character gets introduced to spice up the script. Though Jai takes a comparatively less screen time, he stands out. His character sketch is the biggest plus of the film.
Though the screenplay lacks the punch and the force, Jai Lava Kusa will always be remembered for giving the maximum scope for Tarak to showcase his talent. Be it mass, sentiment or comedy, he looked at his supreme best. Not many could pull off such diverse performances in one film like the way Tarak had done here.
Both Raashi and Nivetha are prototype heroines who mostly come into the frame either for song sequences or to stand as a prop in a scene where NTR scores all the points. The comedies do work at places, but the emotions lacked depth is what some may feel. When you have three NTRs in one film, you also need an opponent as strong as him; only then your lead’s performance will get enhanced but this was missing.
JLK takes more time to settle than a usual mass hero film. More time was invested in establishing all the three NTR roles. A thin one-liner and a disengaging screenplay were the real villains to NTR. Though NTR shines with his mass screen presence, the fight scenes weren't shot so effectively. The technical departments have done their part, DSP scores as usual with a couple of hit tracks and a standard template BGM that works.