A charmingly disguised commercial thriller
The first thing that you associate with Nani is charm. That has been both a boon as well as bane for him. Thankfully I watched his ‘Jersey’ where I could seem him stripped off charm and still exhibit so much exuberance through acting. So ‘Naan Ee’ was the only film where I saw him in his usual charming self. That’s why there is always an interest in watching his films. ‘Gang Leader’ through thrives much on that factor and exudes charm.
If Nani is a kind of interesting character, Vikram Kumar too is. The director who started with a promising 13 B (which I didn’t like as much as others) and churned away hits like ‘Manam’, ‘24’ and such, is a director who makes films look classy but, in the end, is still a masala director. But Masala done in a way that it’s enjoyable and not overpowering. Gang Leader too falls in the category. And when the you have a star like Nani, he keeps you afloat with his charm and when compared to other films of Vikram Kumar, this looked more stable. It’s nevertheless a make-believe film but at least its something which respects emotion more than the glamour.
Just like a number of movies in the recent past, this starts with a heist scene too where a dog and few people get killed. The heist is quick and nobody cares about the bank or the money it lost. We care about the people. A letter arrives to few women mentioning about a gift they’d be getting. They all arrive to see the one who posted it, Saraswathi (Lakshmi), who tells them about her plan to kill the one person who killed the remaining in the heist. The sentiment doesn’t really work but the director makes us buy it. They scout for a person to do his job and that’s Pencil Parthasarathy (Nani). He agrees to it as he can finally get to write an original novel.
If you had hated the film by now for shallow storyline, you’re never going to like it further, but if you’re a masala fan like me, the rest would be enjoyable as well. The way they trace to villain and try to get hold of him were all very bleak. There could be million ways he could have escaped. Let me not get into the detailing part of it, I was not even interested about it at first place. But the characters and the chemistry between the family were really good. By having a girlfriend, daughter, sister, mother and grandmother. The director ticks all the boxes and they too perform effortlessly. Even the gay manager of the bank, Santoor Senakkayala (Vennela Kishore) does a decent job. In fact, I’ve become a fan of him off late. His comic sense is really good. In spite of not having much romantic scenes, the chemistry between Parthasarathy and Priya (Priyanka Arul Mohan) was really good and she looked lovely too. With few laugh out loud moments and a couple of sentiment scenes. Lakshmi and Saranya Ponvannan provide a good back up to the film so that we don’t lose interest.
In a film where the entire first half goes by in searching the villain, the main criteria it should have satisfied would be, it ought to have a powerful villain. But here Dev (Kartikeya Gummakonda) is a loser, who doesn’t have any card up his sleeves and provides no fight for Nani’s gang. There were a couple of interesting scenes in the second half like Saraswathi’s back story and Nani’s. I loved the motive of revenge for Saraswathi. That’s the only thing I could genuinely appreciate for writing and that’s the only take away for me from the film. Rest all were made up craft. The point when she says that whether they’d have all ganged up if she had been seeking revenge for an eighty-year-old was bang on face. It’s a question of priority. Like, ‘Saving Private Ryan’, where we can keep on debating whether it was right or wrong. That was a lovely one.
During the climax the only thought that came to our mind was how it’d be a perfect remake material in Tamil with Sivakarthikeyan in the lead because he could do everything which Nani had done in the movie. A top hero like Vijay or Ajith definitely wouldn’t fit the bill because it’s not as heroic as expected but for someone like SK it’d fit the bill perfectly where he’d get his due of comedy, little bit of sentiment and a story with twists. That one action fight in the end would satisfy his fans too. All said and done, I wonder whether I’d have watched it by putting so much effort, if the movie had been originally made in Tamil with SK in the lead 😛
constantscribbles 