Boyapati Srinu’s Sarrainodu (2016) Movie Review

Movie Review: Sarrainodu (English – The Right Man)
Cast: Allu Arjun, Catherine Tresa, Rakul Preet Singh, Aadhi, Srikanth, Naresh, Jayaprakash, Adarsh Balakrishnan, Devadarshini, Vinay Prasad, Surekha Vani, Pradeep Rawat, JP Reddy & Anjali.
Story – Script – Direction by Boyapati Srinu
Music Composed by Thaman S
Cinematography by Rishi Punjabi
Produced by Allu Arjun

Censor Certificate: U/A & Runtime: 159 Minutes.

Gana (Allu Arjun) is an ex-military, who always gets into trouble. As he tries to punish the wrong doers and clear the obstacle for good people. Seeing his “Ooduku Raktham” father Umapathi (Jayaprakash) arranges a pelli chuppulu with Jana (Rakul Preet Singh) daughter of Jayaprakash (Sai Kumar). At this bloody time Gana comes across “lovely” MLA Anjani (Catherine Tresa). At this time graphic example of a rape case, land grabbing issue and power misuse in society. Things change as Gana gets in the way of reckless son of chief minister Dhanush Vairam (Aadi) as he greatly hurt when law acquits him by saying due to no proper evidence. And there are couple of graphic examples of a rape case, land grabbing for gas pipelines issue and power misuse in society. Along with this there is another angle in Gana as he falls in love with young MLA Anjani. How Gana clears issues with Dhanush? How is Gana related to these issues? Who is Jana? To know answers to all these questions, you need to watch the film on big screen.

From the very first frame Allu Arjun takes the center stage and carries this mass entertainer on his shoulder with a sangfroid. Whether it’s his mannerisms, behavior, diction and sense of humor or massy attitude, he is in solid form. Fans will surely want to be like him. He is just too good as heady Gana. Aadhi Pinnishetty did full length antagonist role and he is menacing as the bad guy. Lovely MLA Catherine Tresa need to work on her expressions to leave maximum impact still she has that spunk that covers most of her shortcomings. She sizzled in Private party number with her rocking energy and moves. Rakul Preet has a very limited character and she has done complete justice to her role. Seasoned actors like Srikanth, Jayaprakash, Anapoornamma, Jaya Prakash Reddy, Sai Kumar and Suman have been wasted in small roles and their part could have been easily played by lesser known actors. Comedians Prudhvi, Brahmanandam and Vidyulleka Raman are literally terrible in most of the parts.

Being a huge fan of mass movies I enjoyed the first few minutes of the film where Srikanth and Allu Arjun characters are introduced in a massy way. I started expecting a real good massy film, after terrible Sardaar Gabbar Singh. The first 20-25 minutes were all fine with a good doer going against the odds and the film actually began in the right sense with Aadi Pinnishetty making a solid entry as an baddie giving some mass aggressive moments along with Allu Arjun. So till interval, I found Sarrainodu to be an average mass film with few fanzy moments and fights progressing at a less energetic pace.

But post intermission, I got hugely disappointed with the director Boyapati Srinu simply repeating all weird, unbelievable and silly sequences in the name of mass film, involving indirect scenes showcasing Krisha Delta basin gas pipeline issues, making me lose all the okayish interest generated by its first hour.

Infact such is the way in which both Allu Arjun and Suman go on playing their strategies forcing the irascible Aadi in the second half that one begins to think that have they really made this film for grown up Telugu audience in theaters or just for fans (As once Trivikram said “Fans ki emotions mathrame Logics undavu”). For example, Allu asks Rakul to kill Aadi Pinnishetty but he escapes the place narrowly rather hunting him down, he takes rest thinking of alternative issues and returns to the point only after someone closest gets kidnapped. Similarly, after listening to Rakul’s sad story Catherine rather asking Allu Arjun to help her out in solving issue, tells him that she is a right girl for him. Along with the fatuity mentioned above, mediocre songs keep interrupting narration (Except for the energetic “Private Party” track) as always turning the triangle love story into three funny characters romancing on the screen in tense situations. Not even one character is completely convincing in the complete film. The pace keeps dropping constantly due to the lazy writing and then the finale sequence which looks completely inspired unconvincing right from the word go, ruins the whole favourable build up witnessed before the intermission.

In short, a mass movie has to be fast, with few clap worthy moments, and with lead characters successful emotional connect with audience. But since Sarrainodu fails to do so with some bad editing and every happening on a childishly unbelievable (& Inspired most of the times) scale towards the end, it falls flat and is not able to deliver the expected quite sadly. Director Boyapati Srinu‘s films always are on High on valiance, epic on mass scale and in its emotional quotient. He was successful in mixing emotional and mass elements in films like Bhadra, Tulasi, Simha and Legend, but here director tried to utilize same old hat points, elements of his earlier films ( & Walking Tall, Agraham too), and failed to recreate the magic.

Coming to other technical aspects, Sarrainodu has a mediocre audio. Thaman has given a decent “Private Party”, “You are My MLA” and massy “Blockbuster” numbers for Sarrainodu, but they failed to capture the energetic mood of the film forward. The BGM is too loud, sound designer should have worked a bit on the final copy. Cinematography by Rishi Punjabi is eye catching and he successfully captured the extravagance of locations. Editing is unimpressive as it leaves many loose ends remaining unexplained. Even the transition between few sequences are not properly done. Choreography of Private Party and Blockbuster are good on screen. Fight are over the top most of the times and inspired in few. Production values of Geetha Arts are grand.

An idea which may sound interesting in a pre-production sitting with the producers needs to be conceived and shot in an equally interesting style. But many times we have seen this going the wrong way, which exactly is the problem with “Sarrainodu”. With a one line thick story (reminds us of many films..) and a messy screenplay the movie doesn’t deserve to be called a pakka commercial entertainer.

Survi Review: 2/5