Oh my dear lord! I watched Varudu last week. I have been procrastinating writing this review until now. I feel less acerbic today and its a good time to get this one out of my system. If you are a big Arjun fan, pardon me and it might be a good idea to not read any further. But Hey! It is my blog and these are my thoughts so suck up and deal with it. So, what did I think of this movie? Read on!
Film: Varudu
Cast: Allu Arjun, Bhanushree Mehra(Debut), Arya, Suhasini, Ashish Vidhyarthi & Others
Music: Mani SharmaProducer: Danayya
Director: Gunasekhar
Release Date: March 30th, 2010
My Rating: 1/5
What's It About:
Sandeep(Arjun) is a happy go lucky kind of youngster. His respect for traditions are established in the first few minutes of the movie. His parents have had a love marriage and have no problems if he follows suit. However, our charming(?) hero wants to get married the old fashioned way - arranged marriage. 16 rojula pandaga, 5 rojula pelli is what his heart desires. Shocked? Don't be, it gets better, I promise. He wants to see the face of the bride only on the pelli peetalu during jeelakarra bellam time. Getting better right? Well there is more! The bride Deepti (Bhanushree) is apparently thrilled by this idea and says I will also see my groom when he sees me. Hey, I promised it gets better didn't I? That's not all. When the bride and groom do see each other, it's love at first sight! But wait a minute, If that's all there is to the movie then it should be done in an hour right? Wrong! To make things even more intresting, just when the hero is about to tie the nuptial knot, the mandapam collapses and the bride is kidnapped by Diwakar(Arya). Now Diwakar says a very catchy word Khushmanda. Confused? Me too! So who is Diwakar? Why does he kidnap Deepti? And what in the world is Khushmanda? Curious? Really? Then go watch the second half of Varudu!
Artist Performance:
Arjun, what were you thinking when you signed the movie? Let me guess. Gunasekhar made movies like Okkadu & Manoharam. This might probably be a good move career wise. Your are forgetting here that Gunasekhar also gave us Sainikudu & Mrugaraju. Maybe Arjun thought, In Arya 2, I had a very passive role and did not get a chance to flex by 6 pack abs. In this movie, I get to wear a pancha and I can get to how off my muscles! Or it has to be this! Maybe he enjoyed getting married on screen so much in Arya 2, that he wanted to make a movie solely based on marriage. Whatever might be the reason Arjun, it was a blunder to do this movie. Performance wise, Arjun is good at fights, dances and flexing abs. Apart from that there is nothing much to do. Bhanushree Mehra was hidden from the media and a waiting game was played. There was no need for such hullabaloo as she is just not heroine material. She only appears in 40 minutes of the movie and the girl cannot emote or dance. Very bleak prospects for this one. It looks like a pattern with Arjun's heroines,Aditi Agarwal, Anuradha Mehta, Gowri Munjal all debuted with him but no foothold in the industry! Arya who is quite popular as a hero in Tamil movies decided to debut as a villain with this movie but I am so disappointed with his decision. Nevertheless, he has good screen presence and does a decent job with the plot given to him. Bramhi is wasted. Suhasini and Ashish are good. 150 real life families which were in the movie were completely unnecessary.
This & That:
The major flaw in this movie is story. It's like a regular run of the mill story, villain runs away with the heroine and the hero fights back. Gunasekhar wanted to add the marriage part to make it interesting but the whole product is half baked and tasteless. It does not gel with me why the hero wants to go for an arranged marriage and the 5 day wedding. It is hard for me to digest how a club going, 21st century kid would want to take a decision of not looking at the bride till the time of marriage. Had the characterization of the hero been different, maybe it would have made sense to me. There is no comedy, no entertainment values in the film. Why is the villain a psychopath? No proper justification is given. Music by Mani Sharma is not up to the mark. I liked Om Namaho & Rela Rela. Choreography is, to put it in one word, Tacky. Especially in the marriage song. What should have been traditional looks like some ammavari jaatara. Climax is stupid. Why would the hero climb the tower and them ask the villain to climb after him and fight with him on top of it. Isn't the ground a good enough venue for him? Graphics and sets which were supposed to be Gunasekhar's forte are cheap and unsophisticated. Boy am I glad Mahesh Babu did not work on this project!
Did I Enjoy It?
No, But I did have a good time cracking up watching this movie. Please give this one a miss.
