‘Adhurs’ Review: Is It Up To The Title?

Film: Adhurs
Rating: 3/5
Cast: Jr NTR, Nayantara, Sheela, MS Narayana, Brahmanandam, Tanikella Bhrani, RajYA Lakshmi, Raghu Babu etc
Editing: Goutam Raj
Fights: Ram Laxman
Story: Kona Venkat
Music:  Devi Sri Prasad
Lyricst: Chandra Bose
Producers: Vamsi Mohan and Kodali Nani
Screenplay, Direction: VV Vinayak
Released On: 13th Jan 2010

The movie ‘Adhurs’ has been in current affairs due to the Telangana agitators and that resulted in huge openings for the movie. It became Herculean task for many fans to get tickets at box office price across the state. Theatres were gushed with film lovers since dawn on ‘Bhogi’ day. Let us see how far the movie stood up to the expectations.

Story:
It’s a story that runs on no suspense but humor. Like in many old movies, the twin brothers get separated at the time of birth. A Brahmin lady loses her child just a few minutes after his birth. The news first comes to the notice of an old woman in the family and she secretly replaces the dead-infant with a healthy baby from adjacent mother who delivers twins.

The adjacent mother leaves the hospital with single child assuming the other one died. Thus one boy grows up in Brahmin family as Chari (Jr NTR) and another grows up at his mother as Narsimha (Jr NTR).

While Chari is orthodox in speech, act and thought..Narasimha is rugged in every way. How these two brothers unite forms the climax. Chandrakala (Nayantara) pairs up with Chari and another cosmo-girl (Sheela) becomes the love interest of Narasimha.

Performances:
Jr NTR lives up to the expectations in everything. He brought many laughs in theaters with his Brahmin character and hilarious characterization. Narasimha part is quite routine. His dances took away the breath of audiences. Especially his steps in ‘pilla na valla kaadu’ received once-mores in theatres. But the costumes part is very weak. Why did he put on jackets in every scene? That’s not understood.

Nayantara is slim and sleek while Sheela looted young hearts with glowing skin and sensuous garments. Nothing more is left for heroines than this to discuss.

Brahmanandam is ok as Bhattu but more is expected from him in last 30 minutes as well. The film would have brought better feel with that. Raghu Babu is good and MS Narayana is better. Tanikella Bharani aptly grooved in Brahmin’s role.

Highlights:

• Kondavalasa (in Amitabh Bachchan get up) as hero in Chakkera Takkuva (Cheeni Kum remake) brought laughs


• ‘Maa Baava Kallallo Aanandam Choodali’ dialogue of Ananth also brought hilarious attention


• The change of lyrics from ‘Where is that Panche Kattu, where is that pilaka juttu, where is that niluvu bottu…Chaari’ to ‘where is that panche kattu, where is that paatha bike, where is that old look…Chaari..’ is not good but should be accepted due to Censor reasons.


• VV Vinayak appears in a single frame in the song ‘Sambho Siva Sambho…’and that resulted in loud whistles and shouts in theatres


• NTR’s dances stood on the top


• Brahmanandam’s comedy as lover to Nayanatara impresses.


• Bad guy Mahesh Manjrekar also tried to make people laugh to some extent in the role of big Don.


• All songs are good visual treats

Disappointments:

• Sayaji Shinde’s character is half baked. Audiences didn’t understand if he were a positive or negative character. On a whole, the characterization graph is not complete.


• Climax is trash with senseless weapon theme. No one understood the logic and possibility of such a weapon that appears from air!!!

Analysis:
Observing the uncertainty of the release of this film in Hyderabad (due to Telangana agitators), I moved to coastal Andhra and reserved my ticket to watch as it’s my profession. But I found something interesting here. A few Osmania students have come here from Hyderabad with same uncertainty and met me in theatre. I understood, movie lovers know no boundaries and no politics can put iron curtains among the lovers of art.

Well, coming into the analysis part, it’s a ‘King’ kind of narration but action dominated comedy. Audiences got vexed up watching sentiment and violence in this type of story line, but prefer it when blended with loads of comedy. Although attempts are made with the characters like Bhattu (Brahmanandam) and Atma (MS Narayana), the dose isn’t sufficient. The requirement is certainly more.

First half brings an average feel while the second half breezes little better with more comedians. But the climax is predictable and abrupt. That is very well within the expected limits of common audiences. What marred the movie from attaining greater heights is only the weapon-episode and climax part.

On a whole, it’s a treat for movie lovers as NTR appeared on screen after a very long gap.

Bottom Line: Watch it for NTR’s dances and his hilarious Brahminic performance.

(SiraSri can be reached at [email protected])