“Nayak” starring RamCharan is a sensational winner and a
film worthy of duel under the “Sun”kranti. Sankranti is the grand-mother of
Tollywood movies and is not for the faint-hearted. Even the best of stars don’t
take a shy at the stumps for Sankranti because of the weight of expectations
and the stakes riding on the season. It is the equivalent of Diwali for
Kollywood and Bollywood, but unlike Bollywood, Tollywood Sankranti separates
men from the boys because there will be a clash of atleast two, if not three or
four star-studded films. This little intro is for setting the tone for the year
and “Nayak” proves to be an auspicious start for Tollywood. It has all the
elements of entertainment – a rising star of a Megastar, romance, drama sans
melodrama, villainy that justifies heroism, twists in the interval that shakes
you up and comedy that is of an unprecedented scale, plenty of action and
glamor of two cute heroines – Kajol and Amala Paul. Well-directed by veteran VV
Vinayak.
The story is not dramatically different from dual-role
stories in which Tollywood has taken a world patent. Set in Kolkata, Cherry is
a happy-go lucky software engineer who falls in love with Kajol. His side-kick is Brahmanandam
playing the role of “Jilebi” who bumps into the gang of Rahul Dev and Jayaprakash.
In the many romantic twists of the romance between Cherry and Kajol there is
another character of Aashish Vidyarthi who is a CBI officer investigating
gruesome murders of a goon, a police DIG (think of it!). He thinks it is all
the work of Cherry and prepares to nab him next at a pre-announced Kumbh Mela
where Pradeep Rawal gets a threat to get killed. At the Kumbh Mela where
generally two doubles get lost from each other in olden movies, the bizarre
twist that the one who is killing off all the villains is not Cherry, but
Naayak, his look-alike. Then a lengthy interval which justifies the violent
spree of killing by Naayak of all the guys who wronged him and his
brother-in-law’s family. And then the proverbial climax after 160 minutes
spaced with six spicy songs, about six to seven slick but needless fights and
plenty of comedy from Jayaprakash Reddy,
Posani Krishna Murali, Brahmanandam and MS Narayana.
VV Vinayak is a director who excels in screenplay and story-telling
and this is going to be a well-worked out example of his capabilities especially
after the debacle of “Badrinath” but what can make his movies a family-draw is
an abject reduction of grating violence with sumos, sickles and gunshots. While
he has got great narrative grip in giving a story full of twists and
flashbacks, he needs to be a responsible
film-maker of family sensitivities and tone down violence. In this film, he inter-mixes
a lot of themes from movies like “Tagore”, “Aadi”, “Bunny”(all his films) as
well as films like “Sivaji”, “Stalin” and “Businessman”. There are social themes
touched upon like child prostitution and child beggary after maiming the
children (as shown in “Slumdog Millionaire”). Couple this with violence, and
you have a full-blooded “A” certificate. Personally, I feel “A” certificate
films mar the fesivity of Sankranti season and should be avoided. But
unlike a movie like “Businessman”
released last Sankranti, this film doesn’t have adult-level profanities. What
redeems the film from its mediocrities of double-role tamashas seen from the
times of “Ramudu-Bheemudu” is the fantastic comedy and entertainment right from
the first few minutes. The first fight in a series of never-ending stunts comes
only at the fortieth minute so it sets the characters well with the
show-stealers being Jayaprakash (this must be his career-best), Posani Krishna
Murali (he steals the show in second-half). Brahmanandam, Venu Madhav and MS
Narayana have not get the better deal in this film and atleast their characters
are not etched out to milk their potential. Ramcharan looks very stylish and “Orange”cool
throughout the film and even the mass role of “Naayak” looks classy for him, he
probably had the least dialogues in the film as a hero compared to all his
previous films. But he proves a point again, that he can dance as well as his
dad and his cousin Allu Arjun. All the songs carry a signature step and a classy twist of a leg.
There are so many others dominating in this film that Charan’s space comes only
in the songs and fights a few one-liners with
the villains and Kajol. Both Kajol and Amala Paul look passable despite
their skimpy clothes and sizzle in the navel. Kajol looks jaded and Amala Paul
is guilty of horrible makeup; her lipstick and dressing sense has gone haywire.
Aashish Vidyarthi, Kota Srinivasa Rao make their mark in their respective
roles. Music by Thaman gives the classy feel to the mass numbers in the album
with one song starring item girl Charmmee quite a foot-tapping number. The song
remixing “Shubhalekha Raasa” (“Kondaveeti Donga”) is well-shot in Iceland but
the song’s interludes are outright copied from the original song by IlayaRaja.
I thought the interludes by IlayaRaja have given an iconic status to the song
but by copying it fully right through the notes, Thaman disappointed us. What is the meaning of a
remix then?
On the whole, the film is marred only by excessive violence but carries the
day for some extraordinary entertainment and good songs and convincing performances
by the entire starcast. Tollywood has patented few themes for eternity and
ATM-cash-withdrawal from the box office. Examples, “Yamudu” theme, “Dual Role
and sometimes triple role” themes – lost and found kind, “Shakespearan themes”
of Taming the shrew/Comedy of errors/King Lear/Macbeth/All’s Well that ends
well kind. The dual role concept is given an exhilarating treatment by VV
Vinayak who should take a bow with this film. But for the violence in the film
which extends the film by atleast 20 minutes, I subtract 0.5 and give the film
an above-average 3 out of 5.
