Movie: The Villain
Director: Prem
Cast: Shivarajkumar, Kiccha Sudeep, Amy Jackson, Saranya Ponvannan, Kuri Pratap, Meka Srikanth, Tilak, Mithun Chakraborty, Jai Jagadeesh
Ever since this movie starring two of the biggest stars in Sandalwood coming together was announced for the first time, the discourse has been essentially about the heroes! After its release too, this discourse continues. Apart from die-hard fans of the two star actors, the film offers very little in terms of cinematic brilliance!
A modernised adaptation of the epic Ramayana, the epicentre of the movie revolves around good over evil with a tweaked version to make it relevant locally.
Following huge starry expectations, one of the two stars recently urged his fans to watch it purely as a movie, and to restrain themselves from comparing their performances to their earlier avatars. Applying the same yardstick, the two heroes actually do a commendable job, and are the only saving grace of this commercial saga. The rest of the film is actually its own Villain!
The maker aspired to make it on par with international standards but misses out big time on various components crucial for any movie — in this case, sensible content that is acceptable!
Giving the benefit of acing their screen presence to the star actors, the script limits itself to highlighting the heroes, and a chase they are involved in.
About the tale the film opens to a mother advising her son to imbibe the qualities of Rama. However, the father believes that in order to survive in the modern era, one needs to adopt Ravana’s qualities too! The son soon becomes an orphan.
It is Shivarajkumar who first makes his grand entry with a wig akin to Samurai’s haircut. First a dance, then a chase and a bit of glamour, leads to the other most expected character played by Kiccha Sudeep. Amy Jackson is nothing beyond a glamour quotient, and Chakraborty is limited to a couple of scenes only.
Then, it is the turn of Sudeep to shine for a while before he gets chased off. Dialogues and counter dialogues keeps the fans happy while the story drags on and on for almost three hours.
The digitally-generated scenes and chase sequences are disappointing. There are only two comedy scenes that evoke humour but they are spiced with innuendo. A must for the fans. And, insofar as others are concerned, especially those curious about the film with the two star actors, you can survive the tale but be prepared for a drag, and humps that might spoil the fun.
