An overdose of everything
It is one another film which had a great plot but tries to pack itself with so much gun powder that it kills the one making it, instead of killing the enemy. That’s what happens when you don’t know how to use it as a weapon. It turns up as a suicide equipment against you.
The director, Chandra Sekhar Yeleti, gets the attention of audience right away through the Bombay Blood Group hoarding. I’m sure everyone watching would have talked the person next to them asking about the details, whether such blood group exits. Because I and my folks did. I thought it was just imaginary given the genre of the film but seems it was indeed there. Through the interview sequence we get to know that the man holding hoarding is looking out for a blood group for his mother. Sadly, someone with whom the film opens doesn’t have any significance post that. But that one aspect keeps the curiosity for the next twenty minutes or so.
Then comes the villain entry. Something which David Cronenberg would like to take a cue from, thanks to the tube connecting directly to the heart which is outright annoying. Not only that. It’s connected to a suitcase with monitor in front and has the back pack grip stuck to it. It was outright funny. It’s impossible to believe it’s a film released in 2007 because the attention to detail is so minimal, less than early 90s action movie. Not only is his condition irritating but also his character where he just about flares up on anyone. But that’s a good thing which the director achieves because no one, absolutely no one would have an iota of sympathy on him. All we want is him to die.
The second most annoying character would be the heroine Gautami (Neha Jhulka). How I wish she too also had died when Sona Bhai’s (Mahesh Manjrekar) gang try to murder the hero, Kiran (Gopichand). That would have given his revenge more fire power. But unfortunately, she doesn’t, so appears in four songs and one needless intro song before her role ends. In spite of being hot, I found it really tough to let her go without being criticized. Thanks to her lame characterization.
The hero arrives a little late and is a template hero who’s calm on outside but becomes a volcano whenever ignited where he could bash up as many as possible. Which is not at all a problem if done right, after all we’ve grown up on Rajni films, but it’s impossible to like it even though I tried hard to be not judgmental. It became so overbearing that I was waiting for the film to end by fast forwarding action sequences. Fast forwarding songs are quite a norm when we don’t know it. Most of the films have the knack of keeping a song in the most serious of situations which only ends up being a cigarette/loo break but here it went one notch above and made one of worst action sequences which wasn’t inspiring at all. Just the hero running towards camera and there were lot of cuts. No aesthetic value at all. I remembered how bad editing was in ‘Taken’ where they just show Liam Neeson again and again through cuts whereas with ‘Bourne Ultimatum’, the cuts mean so much. An editor must be as passionate as Gurkha, cut only when its absolutely necessary.
By the time the hero tries to get the money or save his dad or whatever his motive was, we get exhausted. I don’t know why someone in their right mind would employ a comedy track just half an hour before the end. That was like adding insult to the injury and in a way ticked all the boxes for not doing things right. Great story, hopeless action sequences, comedy which was not funny and scenes which didn’t work. In all a perfect recipe for disaster. When it comes to mindless masala films, it’s a matter of liking it or hating it but when it feels like exhaustion it means it has totally gone wrong and this was one film like that.
After watching few yesteryear Telugu films. It’s so amazing to see how far Telugu film industry has come. From super duper masala flicks like this to films like ‘C/o Kancharapalem’, ‘Arjun Reddy’ and ‘Bahubali’. The Telugu film industry has truly evolved. If as a non-Telugu audience, I could feel about the change, how liberating it would be for Telugu film audiences who were all the time exposed to such masala flicks on majority and finally end up watching truly world class movie from their end. The transition is just mind blowing.
constantscribbles 