Andhra King Taluka, produced by Mythri Movie Makers, was released in theatres today. In this section, we are going to review the latest BO release.
Plot:
In 2002, popular movie star Surya Kumar (Upendra as the 'annayya', the 'boss' of Telugu cinema) is reeling under more than half a dozen flops in a row. His 100th film, the pride of his fans, gets stalled for want of finances. His die-hard, irrational fan Sagar (Ram Pothineni) transfers to him the required money in a move that shocks the star himself. Surya now sets out to find out who Sagar is and why he did what he did.
Performances & Technical aspects:
Ram's energy is evident in the songs and his presence is good (if not lovely) in the romantic scenes with Bhagyashri Borse. His strength has been that 'chocolate boy' persona and he mines it in the romantic track. As an aggressive college-goer who picks up "fan wars", as someone who can earn the love of the most beautiful girl in the college, Ram is okay. However, his sophisticated appearance is out of place in the Godapalli Lanka scenes; he comes across as someone who was parachuted into the electricity-starved, poverty-stricken village.
Bhagyashri, after a nuanced performance in Kaantha, is better than her Kingdom self. She is smitten by Sagar's charm and is uncomfortable with the immorality of her father-brother duo. Upendra was supposed to bring the magnetism of a post-1990s superstar to the table, but he looks like an old-school star whose affection for his fans is supposed to be a substitute for charisma. Rao Ramesh and Murali Sharma, as the dads of the hero and heroine, respectively, are not impactful. Rahul Ramakrishna's journalist-cum-friend character gets to do something interesting. Rajeev Kanakala gets to put on a deathly expression in a scene.
Vivek-Mervin's music comes into its own during the songs. The background music, though, is pretty ordinary. The cinematography is average.
Post-Mortem:
The fan culture in southern India is largely looked down upon by everyone from intellectuals to concerned elders. When Upendra stated in a pre-release interview that the 'Andhra King' in Andhra King Taluka is neither Surya nor Ram's Sagar, this reviewer hoped for a surprise element, although one part of the mind suspected that the so-called 'twist' would be conventional. The film, written and directed by Mahesh Babu P (himself a self-confessed fan of a Telugu superstar), is barely new-age and, if anything, problematic. In the name of notions like sacrifice ('thyagam'), a lot of regressive, unhonourable things happen in our society. Andhra King Taluka legitimizes it. But let's forgive its follies for a second. Even from a storytelling perspective, the film's leaps of faith abandon all logic and believability.
The film romanticizes the hero-worship culture whose roots are in poor educational standards, a lack of quality social life, among others, in a low-achieving society. There is a strong reason why Sagar is mad about Surya Kumar. This works at the film script level. However, since Surya's millions of other fans have no reason to worship him, the fandom has to be seen as unworthy of sentimentalization.
Sagar does some impossible things with the support of those around him - the kind of stuff we would call a wet dream in real life. There are a couple of things that he pulls off almost miraculously. He discovers something in the middle of a fight and it's so silly that, some day, a thinking director will parody the scene.
Surya's superstardom is current but the way the world around him crumbles overnight, it feels like he is a veteran whose attempt to make a comeback after a 20-year hiatus is resulting in embarrassment. There is too much humanization - it's so lazy that Surya comes across as Himalayas-bound rather than someone primed for Box-Office supremacy.
While the film is more eventful and less believable in the second half, it's less eventful and more coherent in the first half. Even though the love track is run-of-the-mill, you tend to see why Maha Lakshmi loves Sagar, and why Sagar's journey from struggles with himself to the typical 'chillara' guy persona has been relatively less difficult. At about one hour and 25 minutes, the first half is lengthy but fairly engaging. The climax is not bad.
Closing Remarks:
The plot relies on massive leaps of faith, sentimentalization, and regressive notions of sacrifice. Despite a few passable elements, the film is weighed down by average technical work and a lack of charisma from Upendra. This fantasy-driven take on fandom is unworthy of sentimentalization.
