There is one inviolable rule in making milestone films. Either beef up
the content to match the momentum of the milestone or reduce the hype.
In case of "Agnyaathavaasi" starring Pawan Kalyan, Keerthy Suresh, Anu
Emmanuel and Khusboo, the director Trivikram failed to give us content
that is usually multi-layered and consistent quality. Result: the film
is the biggest disappointment in the career of a director who is usually
respected for blending meaningful stories with plausible entertainment.
In this film, it appears that Trivikram lost his marbles and missed
many vital aspects which otherwise make his films very tight and
well-knit. At some point when the director introspects where he had gone
wrong he will know the answers why the film is a farce wrapped in an
absurdity wrapped inside an epic disaster written without much care.
The story may be inspired and masterfully copied from a French film but
any flaws evident in "Agnyaathavaasi" (Agn) are dumber and uniquely
attributable to Trivikram and his gang of half a dozen Assistant
Directors (whose credits roll a the end of the 158 minute ordeal). At
every stage of the story development, there are serious gaps and errors.
For example, the main plot is about Abhishikt Bhargava (Pawan Kalyan)
who is living incognito as a heir apparent to a Billionaire father
Govind Bhargava (Bomman Irani) who along with his other son gets killed
by the villains. Under the subtle guidance of the surviving mother (or
step-mother) Indrani Bhargava, Abhishikt enters the corporate citadel of
his family business empire as a personal assistant to find the real
killers of his father and sort out issues of CEO succession. Just when
you thought the plot is promising, the treatment will be the most
bizarre and incomparably illogical.
Trivikram and his think-tank
add layers of artificial romance between Abhi and two girls Anu
Emmanuel and Keerthy Suresh and build out some of the silliest gaffes
and cheap comedy ever attempted by a Superstar which only dilutes the
intensity of the original plot. Besides the original plot which could
have been a good excursion in corporate espionage thriller like a
"Naanna Ku Prematho" or a "Premaku Velaaya Raa" (Remember SV Krishna
Reddy's film starring Soundarya, Chakri and Prakash Raj). Instead, we
get Pawan Kalyan do all kinds of gymnastics and acrobatics with cheap,
inimitable but mostly effeminate mannerisms which make his role itself
unjustified. This makes the film a theatre of the absurd where the
audience feels they are being taken for a ride by the director with
liberty after liberty.
For example, just for the sake of showing
variety and spicing the narrative, the opening shot of the hero is in
Assam. That's okay. But later, in a crucial flashback we see the
billionaire and his associates flee from Africa with the patented
vaccine under threat of an MLA. An MLA in Africa instigating people
against the company founder? Then comes another plot point which was
never justified - why did the billionaire flee in a plane with all
associates but abandon Ajay - which lapse leads to serious casualties on
the other side? Because of lack of cohesiveness in the basic plot like
these instances, the emotional connect between the hero and his mission
in life - to nab the killers and ensure CEO succession - goes largely
missing. Neither the scenes between Khusboo and Pawan Kalyan nor the
fleeting moments that Pawan Kalyan spends with his father, none of these
brings out even a tear drop in you or make you pine for justice. While
the romance itself appears half-baked, there was never any valid
justification for the hero using such violent means for ascending to the
top of the company. For the first time, you get a feeling of watching a
routine factionist film with urban setting because of the unique ways
in which the hero attacks his attackers.
At the outset of the
film itself, the hero uses the analogy of a wooden armchair. He says
behind the design and creation of even a simple chair so much of
destruction of trees and violent carpentry is at work. This is utter
nonsense. This so called "Mini-Yuddham" (Mini-war) is applicable to
inanimate things or objects, not fellow human beings. If that were so,
like ivory, even wood and other materials would have been banned by now.
How Trivikram messed up logic here is ridiculous. Not just that, in a
crucial scene in flashback, a particular associate Ajay is abandoned by
Gautam Bhargava in his flight from Africa when his factory is under
siege. There was never a valid reason for abandoning one of the three
friends and invite wrath of his kin. Or, you have to infer this is because Gautam may have seen a brotherhood between the MLA and Ajay. Even then, why did the mob sent by MLA lynch Ajay? No idea. Even to that the hero says some
sacrifice is inevitable to lay path of employment for several others. It
is this ludicrous rationalization of mindless violence that further
welds a strong disconnect in the hero's character. Result: nowhere do
you feel either exulted or anxious about all the stunts in the film just
like there was no emotional quotient in rest of the interplay sequences
between the characters.
A few lines here and there by the characters of
Rao Ramesh, Murli Sharma and Vennela Kishore give some comic relief
though they remind you of the 80s where Rao Gopal Rao and Allu
Ramalingaiah played many comic roles in tandem.While the first
half passes a shade better than second half, the content and the
treatment is highly flippant and unbecoming of the caliber of Trivikram.
Instead of building an elaborate drama of wits and scheming of how the
hero tames the villains and overcomes attempts to eliminate him,
Trivikram's concentration has only been on using the bells and whistles
of a corporate drama without doing proper homework. This reminds us of
his ignorance in an earlier movie "Jalsa" where in a dialogue he
says,"You guys are auctioning everything from water to oxygen to sand."
Of course, these are national and economic resources but it is because
of them that government is raising resources and building employment.
Nothing comes free. Similarly, someone should have told Trivikram that
in "Agnyaathavaasi", in all the elaborate machinery built around a
listed company and the quest to establish legitimacy of a successor who
is in "exile", he forgets that a billion dollar empire listed on the
Wall Street has no succession planning via formation of a Trust or a
digital will or the works. It is surprising the founder has a plan B of
storing in unsafe banks in Eastern Block countries like Bulgaria instead
of safe havens like Switzerland and that too in non-digital format. If a
will is written and registered, why does it take so much irrational
drama to anoint a legal successor - because it is not getting contested?
Even the company's headquarters doesn't show one visual which gives an
impression that this is a vaccine making company (and whoever told that
TB or BCG vaccine makers are billion dollar companies!). No testing
equipment, no animal husbandry visuals, no lab chemists. Instead, the
campus in which our Prince AB rolls down his sleeves making fun of
people and torturing villain suspects with leather belts looks like a
cross between Google campus and Mindspace interior - it is funky and too
flaky for a vaccine company. I guess the team of Asst Directors
advising the director don't know the difference between a Biotech
company and a tech company!
Besides the theatre of the absurd
that goes on in the name of entertainment, there are gaping holes in
every reel as it progresses. For example, a fellow called Koteswar Rao
(Raghubabu) keeps harassing lady co-workers for ten years and nothing
happens to him. The security muster is so weak that you can use your ID
card for two people at a time. The litany of loopholes in the film can
actually trigger a Public Interest litigation and it is so depressing
that Trivikram has taken so much of crowd-IQ for granted. In addition to
these errors of omission and commission, he has given a narrative which
confuses the audience as to the location and time while giving a good
audio-visual overlay thanks to excellent cinematography by Manikandan
and some exceptional BGM by Anirudh. Music by Anirudh is way more
re-imagined than the pace of Trivikram's scene interpretation but
atleast that made the movie half-watchable - some of the best stringed
instrumentation can be experienced in the Re-recording attempted by
Anirudh. But do the audience know he is the music director (because as
the lackluster titles roll on, instead of naming the music director, it
says "An Anirudh musical" - again proof of consistency check missing in
the titles). The songs are good on the audio but poor on visual, another
reason crowds are walking out as they unfold on screen.
One of
the problems the director had is over-complicating the plot by adding so
many characters and accommodating so many villains. In the process, the
screenplay went berserk without any character getting registered. One
of the main villains Aadi is also wasted with just a few dialogues and
swashbuckling characterization. That our Telugu heroes are insecure is
proved once again whenever such talents are trivialized. Another problem
is the verismilitudes - you feel you are watching a condensed
filmography of all of Trivikram's past glories - Sampath's investigation
as a SIT officer reminds you of "Athadu" but his character disappears
after an intense scene that dumbs down the plot for the audience, a
number of scenes right from the way the hero manouevres into the company
to the climax just sound like a leaf out of "Atharintiki Daaredi", the
whole plot seems a modern fable that is a mixture of "Lion King" and
"Baahubali" (as far as the preference of step-mother to the step-son
goes). Because Trivikram hasn't stuck to the basic knitting as a
writer-director and attempted a silly, complicated plot with
high-falatin connotations to urban drama, the film has to be the low
point in his career. Perhaps his adulation and veneration for the hero
has got the better of his directorial capabilities and sensibilities.
This is also the most unsuitable film to be released for Sankranti -
there is visual grandeur but hardly anything to do with agricultural
splendor - intact far removed from it.
For Pawan Kalyan, this is a
forgettable silver jubilee film which didn't click. His histrionics and
body-language in the film may appeal to the fan who demands more of him
but it will not appeal to the viewer - there is too much "I, me and
myself" to it in ways similar to what "Mahesh Khaleja" did to Mahesh.
His dressing looks monotonous in the film though elegant and his dancing
seems better in Koteswar Rao song but his timing looks still way below
what we saw of him in "Jalsa" or "AD". Both the heroines look pretty but
their scope is not fully explored by the director - and the final
message in the film pointing towards bigamy is in bad taste, not
expected from a superstar waiting to take another leap of faith in
public life. On the whole, "Agnyaathavaasi" is gross and grating - it is
as if a lazy but talented writer has attempted a Seenu Vaitla film by
re-mixing his own old versions.
Rating: 2.25/5
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