In the creative world, conformity is abhorred and for Pavan Wadeyar it just should not exist. His belief is clearly reflected in Jessie; a film which ensures that even in romantic filmmaking, all rules can be broken and yet be made engaging if stitched with a creative narration. Pavan is a soothing nonconformist that way and he ensures that his unconventional thinking becomes an entertaining watch for his audience. With Govindaya Namaha, Googly and Rana Vikrama he has proved his capability to tickle spontaneous discoveries, and miscalculated decisions or impulses, while allowing the audience to understand the character and relate to its passions and prejudices.
Jessie is again just that; a triangular love story which has nothing that you have not seen before, but what makes it click is the real affinity he brings to the theatre. He has the right mix of characterisations, aptly and melodiously balanced with a camerawork that ensures to widen its lenses to get as many bountifulness of nature as possible.
The story revolves around Nandini (Parul Yadav) who encounters Jessie Gift aka Jessie (Dhananjay) when her mother’s requests her to visit a Hanuman temple. Jessie, who is head over heels with Nandini does not think for a second to express his love and in turn expects her to reciprocate, which does not happen. However, after much dodging, Nandini does fall in love with Jessie and both spend some romantic time with each other.
The twist comes when Nandini’s parents tell her about a marriage proposal and she shares it with Jessie, who asks her to wait for some time. Impatient, Nandini meets his mother who tells her an unbelievable truth, which takes us to the interval. Not able to express her feelings to her parents, Nandini bows and gets married to Shyam Prasad (Raghu Mukherjee), a software engineer. Will Nandini forget her past and start living a happy life with Shyam and how does Jessie react to her marriage take us to the peaceful climax.
With a series of horror mysteries we have been witnessing in Kannada films, Pavan tries explore the love horror angle, a storyline he had in mind during the time of his debut, Govindaya Namaha. Though the genre seems familiar, his romantic-horror gets a different treatment, going beyond just romance.
Pavan’s strength, apart from the handling of the script is utilising limited characters and keeping the focus on the three lead actors — Dhananjay, Parul Yadav and Raghu Mukherjee. He has also brought in three different religions into this love story to emphasise that there is no barrier in love. His lapse is little evident when handling suspense; the ghost twist does get predictable at some early situations.
As for the actors, Dhananjay has been a director’s actor, and as Jessie, he has not only stuck to Pavan’s instructions but has also gone ahead and challenged himself by bringing two shades into his character. Parul has more screen space and much scope to perform, which she justifies. Raghu Mukherjee has a suitable role to play and it seems like a cake walk for him. Gautami's plays a good support, but Sadhu Kokila's and Chikkanna's comedy doesn't seize to amaze. Anoop Seelin’s music and Arul Somasundaram’s picturatisation enhances Pavan’s efforts. Every song by Anoop is situational and he has kept it simple; couple of then keeps one humming for long. Arul has matched his frames to the fictitious Malgudi town and the green visual are quite soothing.
Overall, Pavan's Jessie is mysteriously modern but simplistic in grandeur, and with ample touch of the feeling of love, music, and nature, he brings forth a story which is at times amorphous but still vivid.