Varudu (2010)

Verdict:  4/10

Fine. Where should I start?

You came across an interesting plot point - "What if during an arranged marriage the bride & the groom decide to not see each other until the last moment of tying the knot". You don't know what to do next with this point. So you go in every direction north, south, east & west, search for all the available movie cliches. You put all those into a movie assuming that audience are going to watch anyway since your hero is a top star & finally what will you get. Presto! you have the worst movie of Allu Arjun's career "Varudu".

In a recent interview, Allu Arjun said, “Gunasekhar narrated me the story in 2 minutes and I liked 4 scenes narrated in that 2-minute narration". After watching Varudu, I was left wondering what those 4 amazing brilliant wonderful scenes were.

I generally hate when people go late to a movie. But you can safely skip the first 30 minutes of Varudu as nothing happens there. The usual 'friends of hero' elevating him to 'god among humans' status, hero intro scene where he has gravity defying powers, a hero solo song to highlight his dance. All the routine fare.

There is absolutely no comedy in Varudu. You may find some comedy settings but all are forced situations & I would be surprised if anyone has more than a couple of laughs. I smiled only twice in the whole movie. Watching Brahmi (my nickname for Brahmanandam) never felt so tiresome for me.

The movie is written by Gunasekhar & Thota Prasad. While writing, don't they even think for a second about who speaks such bunkum dialogue in real life. Perhaps the friends & family of the writers. Too melodramatic for even reel life.

I could see a few people banging their heads during that whole scene after heroine's kidnap. I mean just imagine you are the bridegroom & your bride is kidnapped & you are sitting at the mandap and the relatives are advising you to marry another girl. Add to this an amazing lecture from an old man about relation between science & wedding rituals.

I had to specially google to see who is the editor for this movie. It is Mr.Anthony & he has done editing for some very good movies which include Kaaka Kaaka & Ghajini. The editing in Varudu is rubbish with so many abrupt cuts tampering the flow. Suddenly lorry chases the hero from nowhere & after a while hero chases lorry only to be crashed by another lorry. From where does this scene come & where does this go. I can't believe that an experienced editor would have made such rough cuts. I some how suspect that Gunasekhar definitely interfered with him.

It would be a sin not to mention the graphics. What is the purpose of graphics? My understanding is that it is to show some difficult action or scene as really as possible. If this purpose isn't achieved, why use graphics & make the whole scene ridiculously fake?

The climax fight (inspired from X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is one of the worst I've seen. Unless you loan your brain to somebody, the fight is a torture.

The actors include Allu Arjun, newcomer Bhanu Mehra as the heroine, Tamil hero Arya as the villian, Suhasini, Ashish Vidyarthi, Sayaji Shinde, Nassar, Naresh, Brahmi, Ahuti Prasad, etc,. The performances are average with nothing special to boast. Infact some of them are over the top by a mile. I dearly wished for the heroine's mother to have a heart attack in her first scene. Would have saved some agony. Allu Arjun gives a good performance but the almighty dialogue doesn't suit him. Heroine's intro is very unique & novel. She does her job & suits the role. Arya as villain is good but again the dubbing lip sync should have been better.

The music is average at best. We've seen better from Mani Sharma. Devi Sri has given good music for Allu Arjun in the past. Why am I sensing an interference here from Gunasekhar? Nothing super special in dance department too. Arjun being one of the most gifted dancers in Tollywood delivers what is expected of him.

Taking a break from bashing, the only delightful sequence in the movie is the 2nd song "Bahusha Vo Chanchalaa". It is beautifully shot with some great looking art work. After that song, my next delight was when I saw 'Subham' at the end.

After Arjun, Sainikudu & this, somebody should really beat Gunasekhar with a hammer.

There are only two sets of people who might watch this in a theatre. The first set are Allu Arjun die-hards. The second set are miserable people like me whose mother tongue is Telugu but live in foreign places (I live in Mumbai) with no Telugu neighbours & a Telugu movie is the only way to hear nonstop Telugu for 2 1/2 hours and I suppose this is enough Telugu for a sentence.

If you have any other opinion about the movie, I would be delighted to hear. Feel free to vent your anger towards the movie or my review.