Pawan Kalyan, popularly known as “Power Star” by his fans, has become the screen idol to the young audience since his “Tholi Prema” times and maintain the same status in the hearts of youth irrespective of his flops and failures. The Youth have identified themselves with his characters he played in the movies, which have special style of careless mannerisms and “Damn, Its my Life ” attitude and easy-going fundas. Though Pawan Kalyan had a loyal powerful fan-following, his recent movies, Komaram Puli, Panjaa and Teen Maar were not fared well at Box Office and with young audience too. So, Pawan Kalyan might have decided to regain his glory through a mass commercial flick and agreed to act in the remake of last year’s super hit movie, Dabangg. Thus Pawan Kalyan now came in the garb of Gabbar Singh to set-on-fire the silver screen.
The Story:
Venkat Ratnam Naidu (Pawan Kalyan) flew away from home in his childhood due to a clash with his step father (Nagineedu). Later he joins in a hostel and as he grew up, becomes a Police Officer. Since his boyhood days, he had a great admiration for villains. He prefers villain like Gabbar Singh of Sholay film to Hero and declares himself as the villain. He is a man of all eccentric qualities with care-not attitude and dictates his own rule and law in his police station. He even names his Kondaveedu Police Station as Gabbar Singh Police Station. His dare-a-devil deeds shatter the bastion of Sidhappa Naidu (Abhimanyu Singh), a local Don and questions his domination. Incidentally, Gabbar Singh sees Bhagyalaxmi (Shruti Haasan), a village belle with small enterprise, and falls in love with her. The Power war between Sidhappa and Gabbar Singh starts and Sidhappa plays all tricks and utilises all his strengths to ruin Gabbar Singh. How Gabbar Singh win over these troubles and take revenge on Sidhappa matters the rest of story.
The Performances:
The film “Gabbar Singh”, from start to finish, is the “one man show” of Pawan Kalyan. He fared well as the Circle Inspector to a Police Station, a son to his mother, as a lover and savior of common public. His Character is Tapori-Mass Persona in police garb. As such, the histrionics and mannerisms including his get-up style are matched well with the character. His natural style of arrogance and damn-a-care attitude was totally in sync with the character. Pawan Kalyan has done action sequences and comedy scenes with elan. The dialogues and punch-lines come out from the voice of the hero are, no doubt, feast to the fans!
Abhimanyu Singh as the villain had done well with gestures, postures and stature. Tanikella as the wicked uncle of the villain too done good. Shruti Haasan has nice looks and seemed wonderful in terms of beauty, but not much scope has been given to her to perform. Kota, Nagineedu, Suhasini and Rao Ramesh are ok in their respective roles.
Brahmanandam, as “Recovery Ranjithkumar” has played his routine stuff comedy, while Ali as the Constable Samba (as the Pawan kalyan names him) too had nothing new to offer.
The Technicalities:
Gabbar Singh is the remake of Dabangg, but undergone many changes from the story line to the scenes, to adjust to the image and body language of Pawan Kalyan. In that process, the story had totally focussed on Hero alone, leaving all the other important elements like family drama, emotions and entertainment. Thus, the story has become lop-sided and all other characters, including Shruti and Suhasini have become mere paddings.
As the movie is basically an action flick, the action sequences, chase scenes picturised with the row of Sumos and Rowdies flying in the air to the “Dhishums” of Hero, are very extraordinary.
The un-buttoned Khaki dress and red towel as turban instead of Police Cap wore by Pawan Kalyan to suit the character’s nature with a difference, got the criticism by AP Police Officers Associations.
The Cinematography rendered by Jayanan Vincent is slick and apt to the situations. The colors, lights and shades used by him in Villain’s house and Hero’s Station exhibits the mood of the characters and elevated the intensity of the scenes. The picturisation of songs is distinctly pleasant, especially in the romantic songs.
The Movie’s music composed by Devi Sri Prasad is unequivocally an asset as the audio is already a big hit and “Aakaasham Ammaayaithe” and “Dil se dil se “ songs are haunting tunes, while “Kevvu Keka” had become a rage in this season.
Harish Shankar’s direction and pen has done well to tap the mass image of Pawan Kalyan, but failed to balance the story and other characters. He might have a prejudice towards Pawan Kalyan and ignored all other factors in the plot. The “fan” in Harish might have dominated the Director in him. And the dialogues and one-liners penned by him are as powerful as the Hero’s image in the fans.
Sum-up:
Gabbar Singh is a Mass Action Comedy, which lacks the essence of feel and emotion. The story missed the nativity factor, even though lots of changes have been made. There are lot of things, which cannot be connected to the Telugu Audience. There is no resemblance in any manner with the Telugu Milieu in the market set, House sets, Police Station set and other locations.
However, the movie’s package of Action-Fights and loads of Dialogues will definitely satisfies the urge of Pawan Kalyan’s fans and mass audience!
by Mamidi Harikrishna (harikrishnam at ragalahari.in)
