Forged: Ram Pothineni, Aadhi Pinisetty, Krithi Shetty, Akshara Gowda, Nadhiya Moidu
Director: N. Lingusamy
As a toddler, earlier than going to boarding faculty the place films would by no means be screened, I’d pester my dad and mom to bombard my mind with as many Telugu films as attainable. Thoughts you, this was the early 2000s. The movies have been terribly predictable and can be an assault on the senses. It was the psychological equal of additional schezwan crispy fried noodles with additional garlic and chilly sauce. However due to the bogus shortage created by boarding faculty, I might devour all these Telugu movies.
Watching The Warriorr took me down a nostalgia journey I by no means wished to go down. It has all the weather of an early 2000s Telugu cinema and barely any nuance or twist anticipated in modern cinema.
A hero enters a brand new city. Examine.
A villain terrorizes the entire city. Examine.
A ditzy heroine who’s annoying. Examine.
Garish costumes and songs. Examine.
Hero and villain lock horns at an iconic location. Examine.
Unsurprisingly on this movie, it’s Kurnool and Konda Reddy Buruju. There may be a lot grouse to be taken with Telugu movies depicting Rayalaseema because the badlands of the Telugu states. Agreed the area has a historical past of faction leaders who terrorized cities however hasn’t this level been made a billion instances?
Do we’d like yet one more movie to point out it once more?
Do folks from these cities not love? Are there no different tales to inform? Are all of them a part of a client-patron relationship and are at all times both subservient to the villain or in awe of the hero? Are there not attention-grabbing tales and dramas to be explored there? Are there not fascinating folks there who aren’t murderers or folks ready to be saved? Auto drivers, academics, docs, lovers, college students, historians, farmers…movie reviewers watching movies bloodbath the picture of the area. (Sure sure, I’m from that half so this trope is much more tiresome).
The Warriorr however chooses to inform the story of Satya (Ram Pothineni) an MBBS intern who involves Kurnool to turn out to be a health care provider. He believes that solely moms and docs know the ache of saving a life and due to this fact its worth. You recognize he’s a very good man as a result of he performs Holi with youngsters, he has a playful relationship along with his mom, and lectures the heroine Whistle Mahalaxmi (Krithi Shetty), a profitable RJ, to get married. And terrorizing Kurnool is Guru (Aadhi Pinisetty) an actual dangerous dangerous dangerous man. He’s so dangerous he beheaded somebody when he was 14 and doesn’t care about utilizing youngsters as bait to arm-twist his rivals. Ingenious stuff that is. However he additionally has a quasi-environmentalist effervescent inside him as a result of each time he takes a life, he vegetation a tree. A chunk of barren land has now turn out to be a forest. So possibly this Guru chap is on to one thing. Is he a misunderstood misanthrope? Solely time will inform as a result of this movie absolutely doesn’t inform us far more.
Aadhi Pinisetty grimaces and scowls as he delivers dialogues in his accented Telugu and it’s commendable that he’s making an attempt to salvage a component so comically by-product of each villain in each masala movie ever that after some extent I used to be joyful that he obtained this pay cheque. I hope he used the cash to purchase one thing good for himself as a result of I undoubtedly didn’t get something for my cash.
Whistle Mahalaxmi is such a poorly handled character, she asks Satya to take her on his bike over speedbumps within the hope that he might trigger a bump of his personal in her stomach. When enjoying with this type of subtlety I’m wondering what sort of notes she was given as an actor. Was it only a web page filled with emojis with notes that say “Transfer your mouth just a little bit so there will be dialogues dubbed over”? Who is aware of? But when the artwork tells one thing in regards to the artist, then I do know the highest 5 emojis utilized by writer-director Lingusami.
I bear in mind as a toddler strolling out of Jagadam in 2007 and Prepared in 2008 feeling that Ram Pothineni goes to alter the form of tales that Telugu movies inform. However in 2022 his title card which used to learn “Ram Pothineni” now reads “Ustaad Ram Pothineni”. I suppose that’s change. And you’ll’t say no one didn’t warn us that progress was going to be gradual.
However let’s speak about DSP. No, not the intelligent trick the movie thinks it has up its sleeve. Not even Divya SriPada who’s one other gifted actor on this movie wasted within the position of “girl getting chased by goons in order that Hero can enter” character. I might simply think about her holding the cheque and searching on the digital camera guiltlessly to say “I did a movie referred to as Center Class Melodies however that doesn’t imply I wish to stay center class.”
I’m speaking about DSP – Devi Sree Prasad. He croons a tune that goes “He’s a fighter, He’s a survivor, He’s the warrior”. That’s him. Practically 3 a long time in, he’s churning out movies and figuring out when to present good music and when to not. You knew Pushpa: The Rise was going to be an excellent movie when the music felt recent and rooted within the movie’s context. You felt the identical with the music of Uppena and Rangasthalam. However take heed to him croon the above lyrics in The Warriorr and it appears like he most likely sang it when he was caught at a site visitors sign, after lacking three meals in a row, and he had heard the story of this movie.
However the true fighters, survivors, and warriors are my dad and mom who put up with me after I was a petulant youngster. Now I perceive what they felt like whereas they sat with me by means of numerous mediocre movies.