After disappointing the audience heavily with ‘Ghani’, Mega Prince Varun Tej has arrived this weekend with a stylish action flick titled ‘Gandeevadhari Arjuna’. Praveen Sattaru who had a setback like ‘The Ghost’ before has directed this film and the promos were quite impressive. The racy action parts in the trailer attracted everyone. The movie was released in theatres today amidst decent hype and let us see how it turned out to be.
Story:
Arjun (Varun Tej) is a security agent. He provides security to big shots in the UK on a contract basis. Indian Environmental Minister Aditya Raj (Nassar) goes to the UK for an International conference and Arjun becomes his security agent. A huge mafia tries to kill the minister. Though Arjun doesn’t like to work for the minister, he takes up the responsibility due to unavoidable circumstances. Why is the mafia behind Aditya Raj? What is the connection between Arjun and Aditya Raj? How will Arjun save minister Aditya Raj? Answers to these questions form the rest of the story.
Analysis:
Do you remember Vinay Rai? The actor who played the lead role in ‘Vaana’. After working in a couple of Telugu and Tamil flicks, he turned into a villain and created a sensation. He stunned everyone with his villainy in dubbed films like ‘Detective’ and ‘Doctor’. He was highly impressive as the stylish villain and he created his own style in recent times. When he was selected as the antagonist in ‘Gandeevadhari Arjuna’, people were very excited and the trailer promised that the face-off between Varun and Vinay is going to be fantastic. But the movie completely disappoints the audience in this aspect. Praveen Sattaru gave a lot of build-up to the villain character but did not justify it at all. It turns out to be a very ordinary character within no time. This makes the hero-villain scenes very pale and the movie fails completely. The director took the garbage dumping point which was used before in ‘Singham 3’. Though the plotline is quite good, the director failed to add any exciting elements in it. The film was a powerful title but it lacked any kind of thrill which turned out to be a huge disappointment.
When there were zero expectations on him, Sattaru gave a quality film like ‘Garudavega’ but he failed massively when the expectations are on him to deliver. He did it with ‘The Ghost’ and ‘Gandeevadhari Arjuna’ made Nagarjuna’s flick look better. Praveen Sattaru disappoints on all fronts. Last year, Karthi’s ‘Sardar’ showcased the ill effects of plastic water bottles and had a lot of thrilling elements that made the film highly successful. Vishal’s ‘Abhimanyudu’ showed how technology is trapping us and it was a pretty gripping film. Praveen Sattaru’s own ‘Garudavega’ was an impressive thriller but he failed to do the same with Varun Tej this time. Though the message he wanted to give was good, the movie lacked an emotional connection with the audience. Praveen failed to present the problem in an effective manner. He failed to weave a good story around it. He failed to elevate the heroine and he failed to thrill the audience in this movie.
‘Gandeevadhari Arjuna’ has rich locations, rich visuals and rich action sequences but the content lacked richness. There is no reason to make this film abroad as it can be made in India with less burden on the producers. Though it doesn’t follow the commercial formula, the movie does not offer anything new. The starting itself is very ordinary and the hero’s intro scene is a major letdown. Some scenes are unable to bear onscreen even though they are needed for emotion. The romantic track between the hero and heroine doesn’t engage you at all. The movie slightly engages before the interval due to the villain’s entry. The challenges and villain establishment makes us believe that the second half is going to be a thrilling side by that is not the case. The hero goes directionless and the director fills the entire second half with unnecessary fight scenes. All those sequences do not impress people and even the climax couldn’t save the movie. Overall, ‘Gandeevadhari Arjuna’ is a failed attempt that was made on a grand scale.
Performances:
It is quite sad to talk about Varun’s looks every time. He looks handsome as always but his story selection is a bit off in recent times. One feels that such a massive cutout needs a strong subject. He suited the role of a security agent quite well and his screen presence is extraordinary. The movie did not provide ample scope for him to perform and he just gave an okay performance though he did well in the action scenes.
Sakshi Vaidya looks very good onscreen but there is nothing to talk about her character. Nassar excelled in an important role and Vinay Rai did not have much to do in this film as a villain. Naren, Ravi Varma, Abhinav Gomatham and others weren’t used properly by the director. All of their talent was wasted.
Technicians:
Micky J Meyer’s work is fine. The one song is okay and the background scores suit the action thriller genre. Mukesh’s cinematography is one of the highlights of the movie. He showed the foreign locations in a rich manner and his stylish presentation is applause-worthy. The production values are very good. BVSN Prasad spent more than what was required. But Praveen Sattaru failed to utilize the resources at his disposal. There is nothing novel in the script and ‘Gandeevadhari Arjuna’ takes the bottom place in the list of his films. His narration is uninteresting and he seems to have lost his touch after making a stellar film like ‘Garudavega’.
Verdict:
‘Gandeevadhari Arjuna’ – More Style Than Substance!