'Harom Hara', produced by Sumanth G Naidu, was released in theatres today (June 14). In this section, we are going to review the latest box-office release.
Plot:
The story is set in the Kuppam of the old days. Subramaniam (Sudheer Babu) is a middle-class man from the lower strata of society. When faced with penury, this ordinary lab assistant working in a college miraculously goes on to become a manufacturer of weapons in connivance with Palani Saami (Sunil), a suspended constable.
Meanwhile, Kiranmayi (Akshara Gowda) bursts forth onto the scene with the avowed aim of smashing Subramaniam's unbridled empire. But the hero must face bigger hurdles in the form of Sarath Reddy and other desperadoes.
Performances:
Sudheer Babu looks reserved, keeping his emotions tightly controlled for the most part. However, the script doesn't allow him to do anything more than smoke stylishly and adjust his slim-fit shirt in every other scene. After a point, it becomes tiring to watch him do the same stuff over and over again.
Sunil is measured and deliberate. Akshara Gowda plays a cop hot on her heels, taking care to never look dangerous. She is more of a laughing stock if you dig into the logical loopholes that are so pronounced.
Ravi Kale, Rajsekhar Aningi and Praneeth Hanumanthu are seen in negative roles. Jayaprakash is seen as the hero's 'anything goes as far as it is my son who is the don' cute father.
Technical aspects:
The BGM by Chaitan Bharadwaj was supposed to be the touchstone of this rip-off of an action drama. He probably knew that he just had to mimic others' work and be done with it because the script itself is one elaborate excuse to imitate a bunch of films. Arvind Viswanathan's cinematography should have received better help from the art direction.
The stunts have been choreographed by Sakthi Saravanan, Nikhil Raj, and Stunt Jashuva with the intention of making Sudheer Babu the 'Nava Dalapathy' he isn't.
Post-Mortem:
"The mighty need a weapon. For the weak, weapon is his strength." That's what a key character says in the film. The headache with 'Harom Hara' is that such alleged punchlines about weak men and the strongest Gods are used as a substitute for drama, logic and world-building.
The hero is described as the finest gunsmith ever. He doesn't have time for the false binaries called good and bad. His 'mass sambhavam' shakes everyone from the average rowdy to the Home Minister. You know what? The story could have just begun with showing him making guns and it wouldn't have made any difference. The audience wouldn't have remained invested anyway. Or, probably, such a start would have been less stupid than the laughable rags-to-riches arc this film suffers from.
The guns are nicknamed after NTR, Chiranjeevi, Amitabh Bachchan, and Krishna. Given how desperately the film copies ideas from other movies, they could have been named Pushpa, Vikram, Salaar, etc.
The makers had a silly excuse for not showing the mechanics of gun-making. "What if the CBFC asks us to chop off such scenes? We shot those scenes and removed them voluntarily." Wow! In one scene, the hero has to send a cache of ammunition and, in the next scene, he is seen putting pistols/guns in a package as if he is putting Laddus in a sweetbox.
Everything is laid at the doorsteps of the War of God. The over-indulgence becomes so embarrassing that, in a scene, villagers who haven't seen our hero even once before start deifying him as God! The hero's morality is random. In one scene, he voluntarily decides to be arrested to save a follower from being caught. In another scene, after a bout of carnage, he is concerned about the life of only his father. He doesn't even care to check if a few others are still alive.
Finally, the fad of the season arrives. Call it a machine gun or whatever you know it is called, a heavy weapon is brought in the climax. By then, you are so tired and frustrated that you wouldn't mind being shot at by it.
Closing Remarks:
In 'Harom Hara', the atrocities taking place in Kuppam go unreported. In theatres playing 'Harom Hara', too, it is the same.
