Pokiri

Before I start my review I would like to thank GL mama for getting me a ticket.

Jayaprada theatre in Chennai was a sight to behold today. The crowd was simply unstoppable with fans dancing on the seats – well for exactly the first five minutes. Then they went relatively silent unsure of whether the fight they were watching would get over before the interval break or not.

Let us leave such unending fights aside for a moment. I would like talk about the Devuda song. It has been quite some time since I watched anything of such quality. Cinematography at its best – excellent camera movements and some nice steps by the leading man. This song stands apart from the rest of the songs – save the last song.

I wanted to write about the songs too. But alas! I don’t remember any of them now. I don’t even remember the leading scenes for most of those songs. The film has at least two songs that can be cut easily.

Mahesh had the best lines and the best character sketch in the movie. Poori Jagannath obviously spent quite a gazillion years working on Mahesh Babu’s role. It is a pity then that he didn’t spend an iota of that effort in sketching the other characters which pass off as merely one dimensional and in some cases – like Venu Madhav and Ali – zero dimensional.

Poori Jagannath’s fascination with totally unnecessary villains continue in this movie too. Like songs, two villain roles can be safely cut. Prakash Raj need not be living outside the country. He can very well be in India for this story. And that would have made things simpler for the viewers.

A few years back, there was a Tamil movie called Run. It holds a record of sorts in the tinsel world. The comedy track in that movie had absolutely no connection with the main thread. The characters did not overlap. There were no common scenes. It was just a digital switch between the highway and the parallel dust track.

The comedy track in this movie comes very close to that. The sad part is that it falls flat. There is something called the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility which the director was perhaps unaware of. He kept on barking on the same concept again and again and again and again. By the time the comedy track entered its climax – viewers in the movie hall were actually groaning in frustration.

Ileana – the hourglass lady – A future bollywood prospect – With a figure like that she is not gonna be with Tollywood for long. One of the reasons I was so looking forward to this movie was Ileana. I missed her in Devdas. One of my friends then sent me her photos through email. (He incidentally liked this movie very much.) I was stumped. I was floored. I scolded myself for not watching Devdas. When I found that Pokiri had Ileana, I was determined to see it at least twice.

Oh but what a disappointment it has been! Ileana sure was gorgeous. In fact I am all for awarding her the second place after Sonali Bendre. However the director failed to capitalize on her craze. She has not been presented properly in this movie. I don’t mean that she should expose. There are ways to show a lady beautifully. Take Sneha in Radha Gopalam or Bhoomika in Missamma. Those characters stay etched in memory forever. Poori Jagannath had the best looking girl in the industry at his disposal. What does he do? He resorts to rapid fire editing in duets! Give me a break man. I want to properly ogle at Ileana. You take her off the scene in like 0.02 nano seconds.

Let me come back to the fights, the fights that never end. If trimmed properly, these are really comparable to Hollywood stunts. Breathtaking visualization, cinematography, smooth transition between scenes – all wasted because all these keep on happening for an eternity.

This movie has all the ingredients to satisfy the fans. However it has a serious problem. There is absolutely nothing in the movie for the family audience. There is no romance worth speaking of, no sentiment at all and the action scenes are extremely gory. We have knifes protruding from human heads. In my opinion this can be a potential threat to the movie after the first two weeks. (That’s when the normal audience start coming to the theatres)

Poori Jagannath should seriously think about where he wants to place his loyalties. If he wants a slick Hollywood action thriller, he should do away with two songs, trim the fights and cut the comedy track entirely. If he is also looking to satisfy family audience, he should reduce the violence and build the relationship between Mahesh and Ileana on a deeper scale with a sustained focus on romance.

As it stands out, cardboard characters are aplenty in the movie with just one well rounded personality – Mahesh Babu. Fans will be happy. Action movie fans will relish this. But then, does it have a future after the third week? Remains to be seen!

Platy.