What’s it about?
Pablo Neruda (Siddhu Jonnalagadda), who calls himself Jack, dreams of becoming a RAW agent. He even attends an interview for the job. But Jack doesn’t wait around—driven by his hobby of spying and hacking, he stumbles upon a lead about a potential terrorist plot and dives straight into action in the old city of Hyderabad. However, a misstep puts him on a collision course with seasoned RAW officer Manoj (Prakash Raj).
Meanwhile, Jack’s father (Naresh), clueless about his son’s secret activities, hires a private detective, Afsana (Vaishnavi Chaitanya), to find out what Jack is really up to. As Afsana and Jack grow closer, their bond turns into a budding romance. But just as things get personal, Manoj drops a bombshell—Jack was never selected to be a RAW agent in the first place.
Still, Jack isn’t one to sit quietly. When he uncovers intel about another terrorist, Rahman, operating out of Nepal with plans against India, he doesn’t think twice. He heads to Nepal. What follows is a ride as Jack and RAW find common ground and team up to protect the nation.
Analysis
Pablo Neruda is a great Chilean poet, a Nobel laureate. His love poems, political verses, and surrealist writings have been widely celebrated by literary circles. But what made the protagonist’s mother in this film name her son Pablo Neruda? No clue is given. She isn’t shown to be a fan of poetry, nor is she portrayed as a literature student or teacher. It seems director Bommarillu Bhaskar simply felt that the name “Pablo Neruda” would sound “different” for a Telugu hero and would suit Siddhu’s image. Not content with just that, the protagonist gives himself a nickname—Jack, inspired by the idiom “jack of all trades, master of none.”
From the name and the self-assigned nickname, it feels like Bhaskar—who’s known for his attention to detail in character development and scene construction in films like Bommarillu and Parugu—didn’t quite apply the same thought process here.
When a director or an actor tries to break away from their usual style and explore a new genre, it’s both understandable and appreciable. But it becomes tiring for the audience when they fail to capture the essence of that genre. Bhaskar stepping away from his signature emotional-romantic stories to attempt a spy thriller, and Siddhu distancing himself from the “Tillu” franchise, both seem to have missed their original intent somewhere along the way.
The core idea—a quirky, carefree guy stumbling into a spy mission and somehow becoming the hero who saves the nation—is familiar territory in Hollywood. Bhaskar might have thought it would suit Siddhu’s off-screen energy if adapted into Telugu. On paper, it probably sounded fun. In execution, it simply doesn’t land.
The best part for me? The sequences between Siddhu and his mother’s character. There’s an emotional layer explaining why Jack behaves the way he does, and it works. The stylised interval bang, thanks to Vijay K Chakravarthy’s cinematography, is also visually striking. But beyond these two or three scenes, the film offers little to appreciate.
With the Tillu films—DJ Tillu and Tillu Square—Siddhu Jonnalagadda proved that he could carry a film entirely on his shoulders, thanks to his energy, raw dialogues, and impeccable comic timing. The youth have started admiring his brand of acting. Trying to carry that same persona into a spy thriller in Jack, he seems miscast. The spark just doesn’t ignite. Vaishnavi Chaitanya, despite a promising start, fades into the background too soon. Prakash Raj, playing a RAW officer, brings nostalgic shades of his early 2000s roles but doesn’t get much to chew on.
Despite having three music directors—Suresh Bobbili, Sam CS, and Achu Rajamani—the soundtrack doesn’t stick. The background score occasionally does its job, but the songs lack the emotional or melodic punch we’ve come to associate with Bhaskar’s earlier work. The cinematography, though, is effective.
Bhaskar ends the film with a philosophical line asking where greatness lies—in the sculpture or in the sculptor? But this film leaves us with a question of our own: who’s to blame—Shilpi (the director) or Shilpam (the actor)?
Bottom line: ‘Jack’ tries to blend spy thrills with lighthearted drama, but the mismatch is glaring. It neither entertains nor engages. A poorly scultped one.
Rating: 2.25/5
By jalapathy gudelli
Movie: Jack
Cast: Siddhu Jonalagadda, Vaishnavi Chaitanya, Prakash Raj, Naresh, and others
Music: Achu Rajamani, Sam CS, Suresh Bobbili
DOP: Vijay k charavarthy
Editor: Navin noooli
Production Designer: Kolla Avinash
Presents: B. Bapineedu
Producer: Bvsn prasad
Written and Directed by: Bommarillu Bhaskar
Release Date: April 10, 2025
