Arjun Reddy

When you’re surrounded by millions of opportunities still you have an insecurity that your free will might not be accepted by the society. You struggle hard to find your voice and think that people should treat you like how to deserve. For this kind of false prestige there is name “EGO”. If you fall into the traps of it you end up ignoring the best moments of your life and by the time you understand life might slip out of your hands. Arjun Reddy tries to depict that in more nuanced way of character study. Let’s see how much it succeeds ..

Plot : Arjun Reddy (Vijay Devarakonda) doesn’t real care anyone and even about his career, future even though he is focused and committed doesn’t really care for it too when it comes to his EGO. But he shows a change with the entrance of Preeti (Shalini Pandey) in his life. Even though the relationship seems to be classic case of submissive person falling for a more dominating Alpha, we see that changing. Once they separate due to EGO clash, it’s more about Arjun’s realisation. What is that? How he evolves? Watch it on screen …

Performances : Vijay Devarakonda doesn’t need any warm up here. He looks and feels like Arjun Reddy right from the first scene. We believe him to be the character more than him being an actor. This is an achievement for him but he needs to keep up the momentum. Shalini Pandey is a find. She makes her character lively. She is good in conveying emotions in silence and also great in scenes where she needs to speak out. Her dubbing for her character is in perfect sync with the role she is playing. Rahul Ramakrishna’s portrayal is next best thing in the movie. He has a great character and he performs it to his greatest potential. Kamal Kamaraju, Bhuvan and all the actors look perfect in their characters on screen. Watching Kanchana after almost three and half decades is an ultimate pleasure.

Technicalities : Cinematography by Raju Thota is the major plus for this movie. He gets the right tone and induced life into the images. He doesn’t try to make attempts in selling the scene but he makes a honest attempt at capturing the right emotion. Kudos to him. Shashank as an editor is a definite plus for this movie. He uses his scissors to make the movie rather than to just cut and paste some shots and make it a video. He understands pacing really well. Radhan scored may be his best yet for the film. His Back Ground Score impressed us more and his songs blend well into the narrative. A laudable attempt from him.

Sandeep Reddy Vanga makes an honest attempt in telling a story of a young man who is free spirited and happy in being himself. He depicts his nature of being too submissive to his self pride and peels the layers of that slowly step by step. His writing is layered enough but his dependence on dialogue in second hour harms the narration. His images have great strength and also great lines flow through the narrative at right times. But when it is unnecessary, he tries to give more importance to comedy or indirect speech than direct images. That means he is changing the perspective of his narration from time to time and that can be avoided to give a more clear tone. Images make more impact and may be next time, he rectifies this too.

Analysis : Arjun Reddy is one honest attempt that TFI needed from an young team to shake up the Industry that has been settling down for unapologetic heroic films. It’s not bad to make “hero” films but we need more content to make new films than the same old formulaic messes. This film gets many things right except for run-time but that should not be a major issue for a good film.

Rating : 3/5

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