Pokiri: Strictly for the fans of Mahesh Babu.
PVR Cinemas could use me for an advertisement to showcase their nationwide presence! I had never watched any movie in any PVR in Delhi, its stable. And here I was going to a PVR to watch a telugu movie in Hyderabad!
I don’t understand telugu. Period. So almost all my friends laughed when I told them about this decision! And my linguistic inability didn’t make me regret my decision, it was the film that was the ultimate letdown. But let me clarify that my comments are not prejudice of a North Indian towards a South Indian movie and its artists since I am a big fan of Maniratnam and Shankar!
I went to watch ’Pokiri’, starring telugu hot favorite Mahesh Babu and latest sensation Ileana. So what is wrong with the movie? I think that most South Indian directors, in order to cash on the popularity of stars not only compromise on story and screenplay but even make it downright silly!
So if you are a fan of Mahesh Babu, I suggest you don’t read any further else you will want to kill me right now. ’Pokiri’ is strictly for his fans, and they will certainly enjoy it. There is everything that you will want him to do. He sings, fights, dances, fights more, romances with the heroine and ofcourse fights more! In between director and writers have tried to throw in some reasons to justify his doing all this. That this doesn’t make much sense to me is just another story.
The hero is a ’pokiri’ or goon, who is fearless and bashes up Bhai’s agents who came to finish him off, and after he is finished with them, goes straight to song and dance (staring constantly at the camera!!!). The NRI don (played by Prakashraj, who looks like Dawood Ibrahim in some sequences) and corrupt police inspector (Aashish Vidyarthi) forms the nexus of evil. Hero sneaks on the heroine who is an aerobics instructor, before saving her from harassment from the inspector. There is also a sex-on-tape angle here with ACP’s daughter being victimized by one of the don’s men and some of the ACP’s dialogues about responsibility of media might have seemed to people as ’thought provoking’ and ’substantial’!
A new identity of hero is shown to us, post intermission, after mind numbing and mostly very grotesque action sequences.
The comedy track is good with Brahmanand around. Thumbs up on this front.
I don’t want to reveal the story just in case anyone wants to watch the movie, but I couldn’t understand what good he was doing when hero was undercover? Also how the heroine could accept the guy after witnessing the extremely brutal killings is beyond me? And I won’t even talk about the climax!!! Whole thing seems to be setup just to show the fighting skills of hero. The don has been made to look silly. Never did I feel that he has any strategic mind required to run a huge empire.
The action sequences are very well coordinated and choreographed though they are mostly very gruesome and some maybe outright sickening. All for the fans you see!
I haven’t watched MaheshBabu earlier and different people told me different things about his acting abilities and dialogue delivery. I think he is OK! Not that great! Sorry if I hurt anyone’s sentiments here. Ileana does what she is meant to do, look pretty! She also gives hero reasons to bash up the corrupt inspector. My favorite actor in the movie is ever dependable Nasser. But I cringed in my seat when he spoke some insipid dialogues.
I could not understand many dialogues and many friends have told me that dialogues are good, so I take their word and believe that the dialogues are good. Music is ok and a couple of songs are hummable. Cinematography is good. Special Effects in the action sequences are good again and they add extra zing to these scenes.
On the whole, as I said earlier this film is strictly for the fans of Mahesh Babu or if you don’t care for any substance in the story. Sorry not my taste.
My rating: 2/5