1 – Nenokadine – but surely will not be on top position No. 1

Coming close on the heels of hat-trick of super duper hits by Mahesh Babu the expectation were sky high for this movie and everyone expected that it may better Pawan Kalyan’s Attarintiki Daredi.    But the law of average has caught Mahesh Babu soon and this one is going to be a moderate hit at the most and going the `Atidhi’ and `Sainikidu’ way.

No doubt Mahesh Babu, Producers and Director Sukumar should be appreciated for coming up with an experimental movie – a psycho thriller of identity crisis and memory disorder.      But in the last decade or so, the Telugu movies have started banking so heavily on the comedy track with star comedians like Brahmanandam, MVL Narayana, Ali, Sunil and Late D Subramanyam that whatever may be subject of the movie without their support it is difficult for any movie to sail through.    May be it too was part of the strategy that  director wanted to maintain the serious and gripping feel of the movie and did not want to distract the viewers with comedy, but if that be the case same should have been applied for songs which too seems to be unnecessary and out of place. 

The biggest minus point of this movie has been its confusing story and more confusing narration – not only the hero but the audience too get confused whether what is happening is real or illusion.    Till interval one may grant that director could maintain tight grip on the movie but still could not justify why he has to fall back on memory disorder theory when he could not unfold the reason even after interval.   The incidents of memory loss/illusion were too many and become repetitive (even Mahesh acting to great extent, rubbing his forehead as if he like the audience is having head-ache and giving a stare look).   After killing the first villain and after interval the movie shifts to London searching for other villains, lockers and what not.   Added to the confusion close to 2:45 hours length of movie and extremely poor editing have not helped the cause.   

Such type of movies have obvious disadvantage vis-à-vis other masala commercial flicks, but any day it is better than Amir Khan’s Talash where too director who lost plot and resorted to introducing `Bhoot/Atma’ to solve the mystery which Amir khan was puzzled to solve.    

   

For Mahesh Babu it will be remembered as one of his better acting assignments and elevate him as an actor, but commercially it will surely bite the dust and he will miss few steps in the race against Pawan Kalyan, if that be the only competition his followers perceive.    Kriti Sanon made a confident debut and her tall and lean figure is matching that of Mahesh’s trendy new look.    Mahesh’s son Gautam (who looks like a carbon copy of his mother Namrata Shrodkar) has done very good job in small but interesting and pivotal role.    

Devi Sri Prasad gave wonderful back ground music which enhanced the mood the movie but songs were bit of let down compared to his own high standards and super success.    As usual Peter Hein and his team of stuntmen did a great job and the motor cycle and speed boat/jet skiing chasing scenes were picturised wonderfully and am sure at much cheaper budget than Dhoom-3 for a better end results.    Cinematographer has done great job in capturing these stunts.

S. Prabhakar

13.1.2014