Years in the making, Hari Hara Veera Mallu has finally headed to theatres. In this section, we review the latest box office release.
Plot:
In 17th Century India, Veera Mallu is notorious among Nawabs for being a bandit who robs precious diamonds to distribute them among the poor. The Golconda Nawab forces him to steal the koh-i-noor diamond stashed in a Delhi fortress because it is a matter of honour for him. But there is more to Veera Mallu's mission than meets the eye.
Performances:
Pawan Kalyan's meta dialogues add a degree of political charm to his character. His performance is spiritualized by his real-life political sympathies and through semi-fictional events baked into the narrative. For the first time in his career, the superstar gets to ride the period action drama wave minus typical event film frills.
Bobby Deol's Animal-bestowed image doesn't come in the way of his portrayal of a medieval king notorious for bigotry. It helps that the script is pretty much unambiguous about the character's regressive, evil characteristics. Nidhhi Agerwal adorns her character with a cool, effortless vibe. The characterization is not cliched.
Nassar, Sunil, Tanikella Bharani, Kabir Duhan Singh, Late Kota Srinivasa Rao, Makarand Deshpande, among a few others, are seen in cameo roles, with almost all of them in positive roles. Sachin Khedekar (as a local lord) and Raghu Babu (as Muni Manikyam, Veera Mallu's fellow traveller), Murali Sharma and Sathyaraj (as an Acharya who presides over Veera Mallu's arrival) have more complete parts.
Technical aspects:
The nature of action is neither flamboyant nor stylized. It is grounded and the use of martial arts lends a level of authenticity. That said, the amateurish VFX robs the action sequences of their strength. Nick Powell, Syam Kaushal, Peter Hein, Ram-Laxman, Dilip Subbarayan, Stunt Silva, Todor Lazarov (Juji), Dragon Prakash, and Vijay have been credited with action choreography, while Pawan Kalyan himself took over a long action block.
MM Keeravani's Kollagottinadhiro and Maata Vinaali play to his strengths. Asura Hananam is not overpowering and yet lands the intended impact. The two cinematographers (Manoj Paramahamsa, Gnana Shekar VS) handle scenes with a sense of enormity. Thota Tharrani's production design is not influenced by the trend of contemporary grey shades.
Costume Designers Aishwaraya Rajeev (for Nidhhi, especially) and Neeta Lulla (for Pawan Kalyan) understand the vision of the directors. The Sound Design by Kannan Ganpat is decent.
Post-Mortem:
Directors Krish Jagarlamudi and Jyothi Krishna have helmed the project. The first half is a series of plot cliches and character rituals. Nidhhi Agerwal's character is a distressed dancer needing rescuing. She waits for her male saviour. The hero's foot soldiers are straight out of K Raghavendra Rao-style characterization of medieval era comedians. The 15-minute stretch leading to the interval is written in an engaging manner, although the staging is uninspired. Despite that, the first 75 minutes are way better than what follows in the second half.
There is supposed comedy scene in which the animal is artificial, the fire torch is plastic, and the Environmental message is synthetic. In a brief flashback episode, Veera Mallu turns up after pacifist devout people belonging to one religion are harassed by a vandal army of another religion. The stretch should have been novel, considering that the whole stretch is done to death by formula.
The action blocks, while distributed right in the screenplay, are half-baked. Compared to them, the songs seem complete in themselves. Even a forced song like Taara Taara is stuffed with cinematic imagination.
The film balances its perceived Hindutva tinge with a humanistic message through a scene involving downtrodden Muslims. The story is a tribute to the Dharmic undercurrents in the Hindu society as much as it is a celebration of Pawan Kalyan's meta image.
The dialogues by Sai Madhav Burra and Pranava Chandra are insightful here and there.
Closing Remarks:
Hari Hara Veera Mallu is half-good during the first half, and doubly bad during the second hour.
