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Friday, April 19, 2024
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TELUGU NAAYAK
EDITOR'S PICK
`Naayak`
celebrates commercialism (IANS Movie Review)
Rating: **
To anticipate an offbeat film from V.V. Vinayak and a performance sans
commercial elements from Ram Charan is too much to ask. Director Vinayak sticks
to what he`s been relentlessly doing over the last decade - to make films solely
for the purpose of entertainment without worrying about the grammar of
filmmaking.
The film opens in what appears to be a ground where five individuals are
surrounded by hundreds of ambassadors and a baddie ready to axe them. Even
before the villain could bring the axe any closer to the tied men, enters our
hero to save them and mouth a powerful dialogue. By this time one would`ve come
to the conclusion what is about to follow.
Charan a.k.a. Cherry is a software engineer by profession and very candid at
heart. He is smitten by Madhu, played by Kajal Agarwal, he falls in love with
her. Babji, Madhu`s brother and a local rowdy, comes to learn about Cherry, and
wishes to kill him.
Babji puts his men on Cherry`s trail and arrives at a place where they plan to
kill him, but things don`t go as planned. Babji witnesses the killing of a
senior police official by Cherry, only to return home in complete shock and
fear. Puzzled at the sight of the murder, Babji sends his entourage to
investigate about Cherry.
Meanwhile, a CBI officer comes barging into Babji`s residence and takes him into
custody, where he is told that Cherry is wanted for the murder of several
rowdies much to the astonishment of everybody. Who is Cherry and what prompted
him to kill? This forms the rest of the story.
Vinayak didn`t even attempt to tamper his reputation by trying something
creative. What he presents to us is a neat rehash of several of his own films
along with some borrowed inspiration from here and there. Fortunately, it
doesn`t backfire and turns out to be successful.
As entertaining and commercial as it is, "Naayak" is inundated with
loopholes and cliches. Most scenes are hero-worshipping and thanks to Ram, they
only become bigger every time he appears on the screen. The Kolkata backdrop or
the long running chase sequence amidst hundreds of people is reminiscent to
scenes from Vinayak`s own film "Lakshmi".
While some scenes are highly entertaining, courtesy, comedians such as
Brahmanandam, Jayaprakash Reddy and Krishna Murali, the rest are senseless. For
instance, a flashback sequence that runs close to half hour is revealed through
a magazine article, which is only proof to the lack of logic at some important
junctures of the film.
Ram delivered a powerful performance despite the commercial presentation. He has
once again proved that good dancing genes run in his family and he has royally
inherited the same from his father. The celluloid space he shares with
Brahmanandam is highly entertaining, while his attempt to woo the ladies doesn`t
quit impress.
Kajal and Amala have meagre part but deliver their best, while Jayaprakash
Reddy, M.S. Narayana and Krishna Murali bring the house down with their
sarcastic one-liners.
Thaman`s music is mediocre as most of his tunes sound similar except couple of
the songs. Chota K. Naidu`s cinematography especially in the songs is brilliant
and comforting.
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