"Aagadu" (Telugu) Film Review

"Aagadu" is an alround entertainer starring Mahesh Babu which tries to erase some of the bitterneess tasted at the Box Office by the same producer trio who gave us "1-Nenokkadine". With Sreenu Vaitla, MS Guhan in cinematography and Thaman's techno-trance music on the technicals, the team cast fair and lissome Tamannah, ruling Diva Shruti Hassan in a club song and comedians Brahmanandam, MS Narayana, Vennela Kishore. Apart from a familiiar comic villain Sonu Sood who is a regular fixture in Mahesh Babu films, they cast three musketeers Prabhas Seenu, Raghu Babu and Posani in their career-best performances. The movie sizzles mostly in the 165 minutes of ubiquitous entertainment that moves at lightning speed. The audiences also laugh at all the right places. Yet, something has gone wrong in the film. Is it the story?  Characterisation? Treatment? Heroine? Over-confidence? Dialogue modulation? Lack of novelty? Lack of sentiment? Burden of expectations?

All of that and the fatigue that comes with the familiarity associated with all of Sreenu Vaitla's films. As a director, Sreenu Vaitla seems flawless because he moulds his films in the KV Reddy style of film-making that moves a story forward with all the elements of entertainment that family audiences lap up. But if you see the discography of Sreenu Vaitla after the first five films and compare them with the output of the last four - "Badshah", "Dookudu","Ready", "Dhee" they are the same - a light-hearted romance, a gang of villains, sentiment of family renuion or father-son-brother, hero using Brahmanandam to infiltrate the villain gang and tomfooling them with a fairy-tale ending. That is precisely the story in Sreenu Vaitla's films.

In "Aagadu", Mahesh Babu (Shankar) is a cop who takes revenge on the gang of villains led by Sonu Sood for separating him from his father (Rajendra Prasad) and brother and a lot that follows after that. And then eliminates each one of them in novel ways  - thats the good part of Sreenu Vaitla's screenplay. The story has a picture-perfect ending but takes you through a roller-coaster of entertainment and great comedy that ranges from top-class (like the MEK-inspired quiz show) and sub-standard (the teleshopping ad-inspired advert on Saroja Sweets).

Despite choosing some great jokes (which spare no one from Balakrishna to Chiranjeevi family  to Botsa to politicians and sportspersons) the film lacks freshness in content and treatment. This is where I doubt if the film will have the stamina at box office to beat previous records because as I reiterated in the past, Telugu audience is the smartest when it comes to detecting movies with a deja vu flavor or plot or treatment. While Tollywood doesn't make different films each time, the audience doesn't blindly consume films similar in content. This is the greatest irony of the industry which over-invests in stars and star music directors but under-invests in story-writers. Even if this film is made for the fans of Mahesh Babu, they will be the first to desert the movie after the holiday season ends - thats the cold truth which superstars and mega power stars must realise.

Over 165 minutes, the director goes down the beaten path of entertainment pursued in "Dookudu" - the same childhood days during titles, the romance in pre-interval, heights of comedy, fights galore and the square-off with villain in interval, the item song post-interval and then Brahmanandam's key entry at climax time. Punctuation followed with boring predictability and resemblance to so many films like "Yamudu", "Singham", "Gabbar Singh" and of course, "Dookudu". Sreenu Vaitla's obsession with television shows in igniting comedy out of everything needs to end. He has the commercial sensibilities to take entertainment to the next level without diluting family-wide viewing needs. Unfortunately, he has fallen out on ego issues with writers who supported him till "Badshah" - Kona Venkat and Gopi Mohan. With a new bench of writers, what stands out is the dialogues but not the story outline.

To be fair, there are some highlights in the film. Undoubtedly, there are actors who stand out - MS Narayana (he has the best self-edited lines in the film) who steals the thunder without moving an inch from his seat except in the last scene. And then the three musketeers - Seenu, RaghuBabu and Posani. Rajendra Prasad is under-utilised; a weighty actor like him is reduced to be a poster boy father to Mahesh Babu. The scenes where Mahesh Babu remixes and tells the storylines from his previous films are hilarious and different. The best scene of comedy is the Quiz Show spoof on MEK. All the three musketeers and Mahesh Babu and Vennela Kishore outshine each other with comic voice modulations mimicking TV hosts. It runs for almost nineteen minutes and can get repeat audiences. Sonu Sood, Mumtaz and Ashish Vidyarthi fail to create impact in the film - Sonu Sood salvages a bit in the climax with his own retelling of a Panchtantra story that sort of summarises the story itself. (Maybe thats the source of inspiration for Sreenu Vaitla's creative team). Tamannah seems a misfit in the film despite her bare-all attitude. Shruti Hassan outsizzles Tamannah in one song even if they don't share screen together. One is tempted to think the pairing would have been perfect if Tamannah was restricted to an item song and Shruti was the main lead.

Mahesh Babu, despite all the limitations and fatigue in content, carries the film entirely on his shoulders. He spares no effort in taking charge of every scene where he is either leading the show or insinuating an outcome. His voice modulation is seeing an unprecedented transformation. In "Dookudu" he tries two modulations (Telangana and Andhra accents). In "Aagadu", he tries too many to remember and register. Thats a fatal flaw because the audience need time to process so many modulations and in the end you may remember only few dialogues but fail to acknowledge the effort. In an attempt to make himself a Superman in all departments, his efforts may go waste unless audience repeats to this film. It may well be a costly lesson for all heroes - don't over-invest yourself in one movie unless you plan to retire with this one. Dance movements have been more graceful for Mahesh in the film. Prem Rakshit seems to have done his job well in the three songs that had some choreography to note. Stunts have been many but only one stunt pre-interval has been good - that should have been all there is in stunts thanks to Vijayan. The rest of the stunts actually suck including the costly one shot at Bellary in the opening sequence. With all the modern technology available, today's stunt masters don't seem to get the emotion that accompanied the "dishum dishum" sounding stunts of old times - today's heroes are better at bending limbs and breaking bones but not at getting whistles. Mahesh Babu has already made a statement in "Dookudu" that he is the best in the current crop of actors in range and repertoire of acting and screen-sharing with seniors. In this film he may have overdone his bit that borders on over-confidence. What undermines his efforts is the choice of the plot and the absence of connect with the audience in the form of sentiment. It was sentiment and comedy that made "Dookudu" a blockbuster. By firing on all engines of comedy, director overlooked the role of sentiment in this film.

Thaman's music in his fiftieth film is good in parts but not in the same league. One finds the BGM score reminiscent of "Dookudu" re-recording. While two or three songs stand out for the beat, the picturisation lets the output down. Sreenu Vaitla chooses outdoor setting for both the fast songs in the film which makes it monotonous to watch. Atleast the last song should have got done in a lavish indoor setting or in Chiraan Fort  (his lucky setting for scoring a hit). On the whole, you can watch it once for Mahesh, comedy but the length and the fatigue wear you out in the second half. First half by itself should have been the length in this 165 minutes of reptitive fare. For that it doesn't deserve the top-notch rating.

My Rating: 2.75/5

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"1- Nenokkadine" (Telugu) Film Review

Director Sukumar has made some of the most intelligent films in commercial genre  - "Arya", "Arya-2", "Jagadam" and "100% Love". His films usually have an air of native touch with intelligence, wit and comedy that sticks well. Coming from the background of a Mathematics lecturer, there is a lot of sprinkling of concepts of logic, puzzles,algebra and mathematical induction running undercurrent to the main storyline which is usually romantic in most of his films where he tries to weave abstract themes into a cogent story. "1-Nenokkadine" is another film in that genre except that the director forgot to entertain us and also thought Mahesh Babu will not mind doing a role that pigeon-holes him into one of the most boring characters of his career. 

The story appears to be copy-pasted from some foreign film where a boy Gautam (played by Mahesh's real son Gautam) grows up with half-registered memories of his loving parents being killed by three villains on a trip to Goa. The boy grows up to become Mahesh who has an acute "Integration Disorder" which is a simpler term for "Schizophrenia" where Mahesh gets hallucinations about the three villains who killed his parents -  Kelly Dorjee, Pradeep Rawat and Nazar. He books himself solid everytime with the police only to be found out that his acts are unreal or sometimes real. These get him into close contact with a TV journalist played by debutante Kriti Salon. Both of them fall in love and the scene shifts to London where Mahesh unearths more clues about his parents - he eventually finds out the villains and the truth about his parents and why they were killed. Is that all the story? It's a bit more complicated than that as there is an angle of GM foods and seed companies using Hydrogen Cyanide in crops. Then there are three kinds of clues of Rubik's cube, a locker key and a 1992 British coin which finally lets Mahesh go and find out the truth about his parents. 

While the story appears ingenuious it is circuitously told without any respect or sensititivity towards an audience who have never been trained to think logically, linearly and sometimes abstractly - all at the same time. Sukumar must have always taken more additional sheets during his examinations, and this film is also unusually long at 169 minutes which collapses so many things in one plot that it reminds you of too many films - "Ek Niranjan" (where the hero hunts for his parents), "A Beautiful Mind" (where the hero is schizophrenic and solves cryptic clues), "Nenu" (where the hero talks to himself as if his wife is around) and "Athidhi" (which was a disaster for Mahesh because he does nothing but brood).  A film like this can be fitted better into a graphic novel or a page-turner instead of allowing itself to run like a multi-grain bread gravy-train which is running on too many engines. It failed to register - there are atleast seven brilliant clues which are too fleeting to notice. (I missed two of them which my wife, a Maths teacher could easily catch). Then a lot of repetitive scenes and surreal stunts take the thunder away; only two  stunts, one  in Goa waters and another in tunnel road where the hero skids off under a car that is skidding off in the opposite direction, stand out. Comedy is nil and the lose lines that Posani Krishna Murali mutters get you no cheers. Mahesh gets louder laughs than others when the joke is on his hallucinations. 

Mahesh looks fab and fitter than before - he seems at ease in dances with a few groovy moves. By baring his torso and his skin below the neck, Mahesh has proved a point or two. His stunts are becoming mediocre and implausible - there is no emotion or build-up of adrenalin. It is just one risky jump after another with the acrobatic guidance of Peter Heins. One of the stunts post-interval look like a repeat of "Dhoom-3". At this stage in his career, Mahesh needn't prove his mettle in mindless stunts but look to enhancing his market-cap by doing entertaining scripts because thats what draws out the best family crowds. In this film, there is not one scene which gives a high to Mahesh in upping the ante in acting, emotions or comedy. By picking a plot which keeps him serious throughout, Mahesh has erred on the same side which took him back with films like "Athidi". Incidentally, "Athidi" was produced by UTV and "1" is produced by Eros International apart from the producers who gave us "Dookudu". 

Kriti Salon as the tall journalist who stalks Mahesh and later becomes his lover is a promising fresh face. She looks ravishing, cute and is able to hold on her own against the persona of Mahesh. Her character is the most clearly etched one in the whole film. Nazar has few good lines and tried to do an image change by playing the main villain. Usually, he plays Mahesh's dad or a relative so playing a villain has pulled down the emotional connect both have had in several films. Music by DSP is great in background score but falls flat in main songs. The song in Goa with Kriti Salon wooing Mahesh and the one that comes immediately after interval are well shot. Dialogues are below-par and contribute their bit in making the audience uneasy. The lack of clarity and consistency in screenplay mar the film throughout. One, the title is not justified. You don't know whether it is about superstardom or aloofness. Two, the director misses out that audiences don't come to watch movies to solve puzzles in Sankranti season. It's harvest time for many not exam time. Three, Sukumar is overawed by Mahesh so much that he is blinded by admiration. In the first half, there is a bike parked by an ATM user flinched by Mahesh  - the number says AP 09 MB 1. Again, he drives another car where the number is AP 09 WZ 1. Why does he have to show stranger cars as no.1 that Mahesh likes to drive? Lastly, a lot of gaps in tight narration make the story-telling hazy and lazy. The gamble taken by Mahesh also is risky because Sukumar has ruined the film with over-worked story, hazy screenplay and scant disregard for entertainment value.  Which makes it one of the forgettable films in Mahesh Babu's career. 

My rating: 2 out of 5.