Swaroop King

Swaroop King
Title Image

Thursday 9 August 2012

JULAYI REVIEW

Scene 1:- Trivikram is thinking in his room about writing a screenplay for his film with Allu Arjun. The story is aleady framed. It should convey a message so direct in the face that the Telugus who according to the film makers have no such thing as brain, can understand. Hours passed, a mug of coffee is consumed, but Trivikram couldn't write even one page of screenplay. Then a flash of idea crossed his mind. He went to his bedroom, came out with CDs of THE DARK KNIGHT, THE ITALIAN JOB  and some other hollywood movies. Ctrl+C, Ctrl +V. A telugu cinema ready.

Scene 2:- The audience while coming out of the theatre are talking with each other. "Trivikram has such an amazing talent that we Telugus should feel proud of"!!!!!!!!!!!

Tired of all this? Okay. Let me review the movie as if it is original.


When the first 15 minutes of the film establish the hero as a super smart macho who can outsmart both the Police and the goons with an ease and intensity that is beyond your imagination, what would you expect from the rest of the film? You would love to put tougher characters and obstacles in his way and watch how he deals with them. Trivikram seems to know this very well, but forgot it midway.

Ravi (Allu Arjun) is a smartass guy who is too lazy even to think of doing a job, and keeps waiting for that one wave of luck that would permanently resign him from middle class life. He has such an IQ that even the Police look like rats before his giantly smartness. In an attempt to earn money the easy way, he runs into a robber Bintu(Sonu Sood), who is as smart as Ravi. Thats where the movie sets high expectations for its audiences, who want to see a Tom and Jerry game between the two. But there arises the problem. Sonu Sood's character may be a perfect match to Bunny, because he presents some challenges to the hero, which could provide a gripping plot. But our hero falls in love, with a brainless heroine who blindly believes whatever he says. There is no challenge there, and hence no interest. Give him a smarter girl, maintain her at a high point and let him woo her. Else, tell us the story of Raviu and Bittu, but why this half baked love story Mr. Trivikram?  Whenever Ileana appeared on screen, I felt that looking at a white wall for 3456789234 hours might be more entertaining. Ileana's character might be suitable for Sanjay Sahu(Pawan Kalyan in Jalsa) but not for Ravi in this story. The love track, which the director thought is damn essential for the film, actually served as a side track that distracted the film's main plot and made the loop holes in the screenplay visible, even to the most common audience. This is the main drawback of the film.

"Wit and humour" combo is what Trivikram is gifted with, and it is evident from every dialogue in the movie. But Trivikram is not a very good narrator here. Especialy in the second half, the dialogue writer overtakes the director and screenplay writer. He divided the film into slices where the hero-villan scene comes after hero-heroine scene and thats how the film goes till the end. The first hour of the movie promises you many things, but all of them are left to the winds by the second half. Trivikram seems to have started the movie with great interest, but midway lost his interest in his characters(or exhausted by the task of driving two supersmart characters with his intelligence and seems to resort to typical Telugu-hero-ideas). He has taken enough cinematic liberties as well. In the climax, the ideas Bunny uses to divert the route of the Container vehicle are in no match to what brilliance he exhibits in the begining of the movie. At one point, the hero's smartness irritates you. I badly wish Trivikram could use atleast 20% of his brain he uses to write dialogue, to etch a gripping screenplay. Except Ileana's irritating expressions and the forced humour, I could recall nothing from the second half. During some of the scenes in second half, you would like to yell at the projector "Enough with this...Show us the climax." Instead of simply terming the film as "mediocrity", I am shooting one by one because, I am dissapointed seeing a potentially entertaining movie ending up just as an average film.It could have become a perfect entertainer (for the Telugus) but distanced itself by its own errors. It is not a bad film, but has paralleled itself with the idea. If I give a 60/100 to the direction department, I give a zero to the screenplay.


Allu Arjun has proved with Vedam that he has a very good actor inside him, and is willing to unleash him on us if the director comes with a suitable character for him. His unnecessary craving for a mass image made him a laughing stock in Varudu and Badrinath, where we even doubted on his acting calibre. This time he has chosen a character that allowed him to enjoy doing it, which helped us enjoy it. Rajendra Prasad is a delight to watch.I dont think Sonu Sood has the slightest difficulty playing the role because he might be used to it by now. Ileana is.......not attractive.

The first 30 minutes of the film is both the strength and weakness of the film. Strength because it is excellent, and weakness because it has set too high expectations, which the rest of the film fell flat trying to achieve. The film has the slickness that we rarely see in Telugu movies, but has been let down by a weak screenplay.

A final say:- Its not a crime to watch. Watch it for Trivikram and Bunny.

PS:- Whenever there is a dialogue from Bunny, the theatre broke into whistles and cries so loud that I had a very tough time following what he is saying. I watched it in Arjun, Kukatpally.