Santosh Srinivas’s Hyper (2016) Movie Review

Movie Name: Hyper
Star Cast: Ram Pothineni, Raashi Khanna, Posani Krishna Murali, Sathyaraj, Murali Sharma, Tulasi, Hema, Prabhas Seenu and Priya.
Producers: Ram Achanta, Gopi Achanta and Anil Sunkara
Music Composed by Ghibran
Editor: Gowtham Raju
Dialogues by Abburi Ravi
Director by Santosh Srinivas
Censor Certificate: UA & Runtime: 144 Minutes

Father is his son’s first Hero…

Nijayathi Nibadatha Neethi kaligina Government official P Narayana Murthy (Sathyaraj) is a frustrated father that his son aka. Pothineni Suriya Narayana (Ram Pothineni) admires him too much. Due to an accidental meet Bhanumathi (Raashi Khanna) falls in love with Suriya. At this point Narayanamurthy hurts politician Veera Venkatarajappa’s (Rao Ramesh) ego and goes against his shopping mall venture. After lot more funnier Kandireega, hit maker Santosh Srinivas and ‘Energetic Star’ Ram Pothineni team up once again for a family drama with equal doses of fun, values and love. Hyper is a story of three men’s ego, but it’s not an egoistic story. One follows the ethics; the other uses the power and last uses his sinew.

Coming to performances, here is a new, fresh or rather good old Ram Pothineni back in form as an all-rounder entertaining doing almost anything on the screen with an immense ease. Ram evidently towers over the every other character. Raashi Khanna looks ravishing but has nothing much to do as per the script. Her character is similar to Ileana’s role in Julayi. Honestly there is no chemistry to be found in the screen pair here. Sathyaraj makes the best use of this grand opportunity given, in a noteworthy, impactful manner. Tulasi, Priyanka, Hema and Priya are fine but it’s Jayaprakash Reddy who superbly adds to the comic element of the film along with Ram. Posani Krishna Murali, Prabhas Seenu and Naresh are wasted in short and limited characters. Murali Sharma is fine as a good hearted goon.

“Hyper” suggests that the Telugu industry might very well have latched on to its next most favorite obsession (father-son relation) since the ‘Love stories’ and Horror films syndrome. There is every possibility that we might be fed with an overdose of “Father – Son” relation soon, since the action comedy genre is what has caught the fancy of film makers, at the moment. The script in ‘Hyper’ is moth eaten and there would be very few who wouldn’t be able to guess the rest of it after the first fifteen minutes unroll on screen. And sadly, all our assumptions turn out to be right and there are no bombshells from the blue lying in wait around the corner.

Looks like Santosh Srinivas has a lot of fascination towards Allu Arjun’s films. He took various scenes from most of Allu Arjun’s successful films like Julayi, Race Gurram and Sarainodu. The director even got inspired from films like Thuppakki, Nannaku Prematho, Sye…etc. Hyper is a copy of every other film in Telugu film industry . Movie had a point to convey regarding “Ethical values and honesty in Government officials”, but misses the mark due to its typical and inspired narrative. Dialogues by Santosh Srinivas and Abburi Ravi are pretty routine. Like ‘Thappu chesina Nanna Kosam Chese Goppa Koduku’, ‘Manusulo anukunte chesese Kohinoor lanti Koduku’, ‘Mee Nanna cheppinattu chesthe jeetham vasthundi, neeku nachinattu chesthe Jeevitham untundi’.. etc.

It damn cares about any story progression in its first half and is only interested in giving you some safe bet commercial sequences entirely written around Ram alone. The so called point is revealed just before the pop-corn break and by the time it’s pretty clear that this is nothing but just another fun made to en-cash the star value associated with an actor, by fooling the audience as usual. 3 songs in the first half and 2 in the second ruin the pace of the film further and the film drops post intermission. And the only fact saving grace in the second half is Jaya Prakash Reddy, who jumps into rescue their star child from a badly conceived message oriented film. The pastiche styled background by Mani Sharma didn’t sync well with the film. The sloppy editing results in gaping  holes of information and logic and the cinematography by Sameer Reddy is fine. Production values of14 reels entertainment are appropriate.

I’m sure in a Tollywood commercial film it would be a bit too much to ask for a plot line with some logic thrown in, when the film maker take upon themselves the task of making people laugh their guts out. Comedy, thus becomes an excuse for illogicality, and in ‘Hyper‘, it’s more of an excuse for making an incredibly silly commercial film.

Survi Review: 1/5