Pavan Kalyan’s Katamarayudu Tells Us Why He Is Known As A Power Star: Movie Review

Starring :Pawan Kalyan, and an array of also-rans including ShrutiHaaasan

 Directed  by: Kishore Kumar Pardasani

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They don’t call Pawan Kalyan a Power Star for nothing. Right at the start of his rumbustious new film he stamps his foot angrily to the ground, the way that minister must have when he got pissed  off with the flight purser,and a fleet of  rugged cars in the background fly up in the air as the Power Star’s foot meets and shakes the ground.

This is not a film. Katamarayudi is ‘Sir Real Cinema’ at its most heightened   and blinding state of halo-worship. It is a 2 and half hour long fan letter written by a fan masquerading as a filmmaker . We’ve seen other closet-fans do the same with Rajnikanth in Tamil cinema where the superstar’s political and personal ideologies are so intertwined as to make the cinema look more ‘Sir Real’(reality as seen through the servile eyes of fan-filmmaker) than Surreal or , heh heh, Real.

Though set in  the rural heartland of Andhra Pradesh there is not a real bone in the entire of body of work in Katamarayudu.The entire film, hijacked and heroically re-structured from the Tamil hit Veeram,  unfurls as one lengthy show-reel show-casing its star-attraction PawanKalyan’s dexterity with crowd-pleasuring tactics (like keeping his cool when villains get aggressive or when the heroine sways  by sexily).

Hence if  the film starts, suitably enough with a preambular action sequence where the villains(Pradeep Rawat, Tarun Arora and gang) are shown their place, in the sequence that follows we see ourgrassroot Katamarayudu as a loving if stern patriarchal sibling to  his four brothers, all of whom are in relationships.

But Bade Bhaiyya remains stubbornly single.

What’s his problems? The hero does spend more time fighting wrestling, hugging and dancing with guys than the girls. This unabashed misogyny of  a screen hero wary of female company and the four concerned blissfully coupled brothers, is a homage to Raj N Sippy’s 1982 Amitabh Bachchan starrer Satte Pe Satta(which , in turn, was inspired by the Hollywood classic 7 Brides For 7 Brothers).

There is a remarkable amount of the Bachchan in this Telugu tale of brotherhood . One of the songs and dances were Pawan Kalyan does a boozed-out binge with his screen-brothers is clearly choreographed as a tribute to Bachchan’s legendary dance moves. Kalyan’s cautious romantic overtures towards Avanthika(Shruti Haasan) are also veryBachanesque in tone.

A large chunk of this high-speed action-drama is purely a star –vehicle. A lengthy action sequence has Pawan Kalyan bashing up scores of goons on a speeding train throwing them out on the tracks on the railway platform with the impunity of a cat which has just spotted flies in its milk.

In no time the director(evidently a  follower of  highpowered mobile games that are sold to us by companies desperate to  get our attention) takes the now-besotted hero into the heroine’s sprawling rural mansion where he wins over her father(Nasser) over never-ending meals and backslapping bonhomie.

There is a kind of very subtle tone of self-mockery in Pawan Kalyan’s homage to oldfashioned heroism. It comes out in unexpected spurts of self-deprecatory satire. But for those who simply want to see their Power Star playing a Powerful Star, Pawan Kalyan doesn’t disappoint this time.

Kayamarayudu is an improvement  on  the actor’s last vehicle GabbarSingh which couldn’t tell the difference between spoof and panegyric. This time the narrative is far clearer in its intentions. The hero of the show must go on, even when family values and business ethics are on the verge of  complete collapse.

Reassuringly,this film lets us know in no uncertain terms, that some things like Pawan Kalyan’s image of the hero of the masses ,never change. The grass isn’t green anymore. But the grassroot is intact.