- Director & Writer: Sukumar
- Producers: Naveen Yerneni, Y. Ravi Shankar
- Starring: Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, Fahadh Faasil
- Cinematography: Mirosław Kuba Brożek
- Music: Devi Sri Prasad
- Release: Dec 17, 2021
- Rating: 3/5
- Review: Birjis Adeni Rashed
(The aim and intention of my
reviews is to critique and recommend while not revealing the whole story to
enjoy the movie when seen. But minor details have been divulged for a proper
review!)
Pushpa is a story of a gangster who rises from an underdog daily wage laborer to head the Red Sanders-wood smuggling syndicate by outsmarting the police and overpowering his competitors with his street-smarts and don’t care attitude. Set in Chittoor districts of Andhra Pradesh, this Tollywood ( Telugu Film Industry) movie is a typical masala formula cinema with daring action, heroic stunts, melodrama, item songs and melodious music. But it comes with its set of gore, blood, over-clichéd predictable script, sexism, racism, stereotyping, sensationalizing violence, vulgarity and crudeness.
To justify the protagonist’s angry-young-man
image like the old school Amitab Bachchan movies, they have sad story of the
mother being scorned and he mocked for being illegitimate. His helplessness and
vulnerability on this topic is shown as cause to his shoulder stupor and gait.
Allu Arjun as Pushpa, in spite
of this characteristic gait of raised right shoulder and a light swagger, with his
cool, non-chalant attitude and excellent acting strikes confidence and carries
the movie on his shoulders single handedly.
The movie has been getting a lot
of hype with innumerable memes which triggered many an intrigue including mine,
to check it out when it came on Amazon prime. The movie has been dubbed in Hindi
besides multiple languages but to get the soul of any movie, its best seen in
the original language. I saw the movie in Telugu and could feel subtle regional
nuances of Telugu with Chittoor accent
which has Tamil influence incorporated perfectly.
The other thing to appreciate is the music. All the songs in the movie have got very popular because of its pulsating music and characteristic dance moves on some. ‘Srivalli song’ is very melodious. ‘O Antava Oo Antava item song’ is very sensual to hear, but the picturization needed better work in spite of actress Samantha Ruth’s sex appeal.
The rest of the movie is very stereotypical
and clichéd. Except the protogonist Pushpa, the movie doesn’t bother to make an
effort to build depth in the other characters. In this day and age, movies
continue to have women characters in objectified roles only. Story and dialogs seem
to have been just replayed from many other movies. The script is ridiculous and
absurd at times-that in a matter of few scenes while the villain is sermonized for
crude objectification of women, the hero gets away with paying for a kiss! The industry
seriously needs better script writers and the society needs to grow up!
A good movie direction involves
good script, cohesive characters, no loose ends, and lasting impact, Pushpa doesn’t have any of that.
Director Sukumar, besides casting a good lead, lost track of keeping it
together and only obsessed with glorifying violence. (Where was the need to
have blood on a grooms wedding clothes too?). The sequel of Pushpa, the Rise is
to be followed by Pushpa- the Rule hence the introduction in last quarter of the over animated character of bad cop Shekhavat (Fahadh Faasil) against the protagonist. If that’s the glimpse of what’s to come and director
doesn’t know how to hold the reins to the story, there is little to expect from
the next.
The oft repeated dialog in
movie- Pushpa is not a flower, but fire. Except for Allu Arjun and the songs sizzling,
rest was a fizzle.
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