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Amal Neerad’s second movie, Sagar alias Jacky is high on style and low on substance. Mohanlal enacts his part as Underworld kingpin Sagar alias Jacky stylishly and with elan. As far as Amal Neerad is concerned, he repeats himself and the movie neither has the novelty or the freshness of Big B. Essentially Sagar Alias Jacky is a short 130 min tale of revenge crafted with a weak storyline and a script that offers absolutely nothing new. Sagar Alias Jacky, has almost nothing to do with the erstwhile superhit ‘Irupatham Nootandu’.This will not be a Mohanlal movie, even a Mohanlal fan will name after say a year or two. Highly watchable, forgettable.

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The movie will be a success for Mohanlal who dons his role with exceptional control and who has produced the movie. With 115 prints and about 500 shows daily , SAJ will be the largest release ever in the history of Malayalam cinema. The movie might just break-even by mid-week. The movie will be a failure for Amal Neerad, who was riding on sky high expectations after the spectacular and original portrayal in Big B. Amal Neerad proves that he is not any ‘Avant Garde’ material we might have mistook him for, but a normal artless director who is going the Shaji Kailas way by copying what worked once and beating it till death. The movie in the meanwhile also spits on our intelligence

SAJ is a highly watchable movie, very stylish and very fast(though Amal Neerad does scene by scene copy from English in a few scenes). Do not go expecting a storyline, there isn’t one, but the overall scope and presentation is very remarkable. W    hile the out of place focus on Mohanlal’s face makes you cringe, the overall scheme and craft is remarkably different. (though very similar to Big B)

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Story: Mohanlal plays underworld Don Sagar(alias Jacky). The erstwhile Gold smuggler is now into real estate development, while running an occasional Con-Job. Sagar flies down from Dubai when one of his friends gets kidnapped. Of course he rescues his friend (what dya think?), and then its a short tale of deceit and revenge. There is no suspense, and nowehere during the movie does Mohanal’s character even sense the possibility of defeat. Its a clean sweep.
Good:
1. Mohanlal: Lal gives a pretty decent one this time. The character, though loud at times creates a fleeting impression. (Just a fleeting impression).
2. Cinematography and Pace: Kudos to Amal Neerad, the camera work, though it imitates Big B in certain scenes, is superb.  This along with the pace and style of the movie provides a feast for the Mohanlal fan’s eye. No wonder the theatre erupted every two minutes.
Bad:
1. The movie spits on your intelligence while setting the record for the most number of villains killed by a single hero. Mohanlal kills around 14,565 villains with two guns. The villains also have guns, but as the Southern Travancore swear word goes – they are born to blow jobs, so they don’t shoot with aim. The script is somewhat as believable as this shooting spree.

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2. Mohanlal-Bhavana pairing: This was injustice to both Mohanlal and Bhavana. Mohanlal cannot even play her brother at this point, and casting him alongside Bhavana brings his age and figure under more scrutiny. Why can’t they have Meena or Shobana play his love interest. Then again, as Shobana said in a recent interview, Mohanal’s heroin must be below 20 🙂
3. Story, Script, Screenplay, Direction: are non-existent. Amal Neerad and SN Swami falls flat. But Amal Neerad needs to be appreciated more for falling flat in his second movie. Big B was a direct copy, but what SAJ lacks in comparison to Big B is the subtlety. In Big B, every dialogue was under-stated, silences were used properly and the songs made sense. SAJ does not have a silent minute, is a bit too focussed on Mohanlal’s face and  the item song embedded for nothing only proves that Jyothirmayee is fat with thundering thighs.

Verdict: Must be a simple hit. Watch it, if you have nothing better to do. I would wait out for the Harihar Nagar team to arrive if I were you.