Adithya Varma Movie Review: It Is More Of Arjun Reddy

Adhitya Varma(Tamil)

Starring Dhruv Vikram, Banita Sandhu

Directed  by  Gireesaya

Rating: **(2stars)

Adithya Varma is  the  third film based on Sandeep Vanga’s  stormy  ode to misogyny. And  frankly, we don’t need one more  version of  the  story of an insufferably arrogant doctor who insists on performing operations in  a drunken  state, pulls  a  girl out of her classroom and  insists  she  is his girlfriend, and feels his grandmother is the wisest  woman in the world(which she probably is).

Adithya Varma  tries  to  soften the blows  in the  other two versions of  the  film(Arjun ReddyTelugu, Kabir Singh Hindi)  by making the  young  wild  rudderless doctor  less of a menace to society and women(in that order). In doing so, it loses it edge and ends up being neither  fish nor fowl. It is   a film that wants to  embrace  all  of the original’s audacity without being held accountable for  the  trespasses that the other version were  held guilty  of.

As  a vehicle for young Dhruv’s burgeoning talent, Adithya Varma hold up  just about  evenly enough to be  considered a  decent debut. Dhruv  tries  hard to appear  as committed to be  a riotous renegade  as Vijay Deverakonda and Shahid  Kapoor in Telugu and Hindi.Sadly thisdebutant comes a little too late  bringing nothing to the character that we  haven’t already seen, and  nothing that we  really want to see. He is  eager. And we are touched by enthusiasm. But that’s it.

The  pee patch in the front of  the pants  remains intact.But  the shock value has worn off. And I wondered all through the  lengthy film why  it was  being done  all over again  for  the third time.Dhruv,I am sure, has a bright future. But this is hardly  the showcase  that he needed. BanitaSandhu  as his docile beloved looks more correct  for her role than her two  predecessors.  But really, how  much can you do with such an unconvincing doormat  of  a character who  quietly submits to her  selfappointed  boyfriend’s bullying?

 For me  the  highlight  of  Adithya Varma is  Leela Samson as  the  out-of-control  hero’s  grandmother .Ms Samson  is   the  loveliest and most talented actor in a  film  which  otherwise left me  with  just one  lingering thought.

Why again? What is  so  special about this story  of  an unbearable lout who thinks his beard  gives  him the freedom to  break all social norms.