F2 – Freaky and Frustrating

Movie Review: F2: Fun and Frustration
Star Cast: Venkatesh Daggubati, Varun Tej, Tamannaah Pirzada, Rajendra Prasad, Prakash Raj, Priyadarshi Pullikonda, and Anasuya Bharadwaj
Music Composed by Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematography by Sameer Reddy
Edited by Bikkina Thammiraju

Censor Certificate: UA & Runtime: 148 Minutes

Movies have their own world and they try to place us in the center of that world to feel the emotions and conflict. We either enjoy the situations or connect to them in such a way that we don’t think about our regular world. This is the main reason across the world, films are still the biggest form of entertainment, either you watch them on the big screen or stream them online or watch them on a TV screen. These days every filmmaker is more or less stuck in the ’80s as they are our reference points to everything even in 2019.

While in 80’s Mani Ratnam, Ram Gopal Verma, Singeetham Sreenivasa Rao tried their own things. Even though SSR didn’t start in the ’80s, he tried many new things than any other. It is not that every film needs to be new but it can be fresh. We don’t eat something that isn’t fresh or even remotely too old. But in films, we are happy to have a mindset that is great in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. We just graduated in using camera, sound and somewhat in editing techniques. But writing is still stuck in the ’60s and we are lucky we may get into ’80s and very lucky 90’s. We absolutely are shocked to see an Arjun Reddy kind of writing which should have been common for us by now.

We are compartmentalized so much that we don’t find any problem with that. Well, even if being in the ’60s in accepted what about coming up with a new angle in the old line. Should we have to give up on that too? Two women are bashed in the entire first half and then we are expected to be on their side and enjoy their men being smacked right-left-center. So, without knowing what they expect from these men or men in general, as the film seems to generalize, we should be wolf-whistling for them and laugh at the plight of the men, whom we at least remotely connect until that moment.

In a movie like Sathi Leelavathi, there is a reason for Ramesh Aravind to find another woman and welcome her into his life. Kamal is the contrasting personality to him. There were women bashing there, even body shaming was done. But everything with a touch of sensitivity. Take Pellam Oorelithe for example, isn’t that same story? Did Sangeetha character even with her flaws, not connect with us? Now, let’s talk about Sarada Saradaga another similar film, there women bashing takes the center stage. Isn’t all that done with tongue-in-cheekiness? Then there are films like Tirumala Tirupathi Venkatesa and Kshemamga Velli Labhamga Randi, both talk about female and male egos in a comic way. Didn’t the characters look compelling there?

The biggest problem F2 has its core characters. It doesn’t try to expand on their basic behavior. The behavior of a person is a reflection of the situation but not the character. A character comes up with a characteristic that distinguishes them from the pack or at least makes it identifiable. (Spoiler Alert) Ok, if Venky is identifiable, do we feel sad for Tamanna when he leaves her? Rather we feel like she is going to manipulate him, even more, when she finds him again. While Honey is Best hammer Mehreen looks too self-centered can we really feel sad for her when Varun walks away? Walking away from marriage is a scathing mistake. Did Varun feel guilt?

Well, those questions are for “Intellectuals”. If expecting your basic film to entertain you with good characters and better exchanges makes a person, intellectual, then let’s all better be intellectuals for the sake of good films. Do we need a film where a filmmaker in a social movie shows that you can travel to Bihar from Gujarat in 15 minutes and that too while killing 300 people on the way? Similarly, do we need a better writer to make a circus of his own characters? Do we need caricatures in place of characters that seem to make a world and push us into it than throw us away from it, pushing us to look at watches and mobiles? If putting an Instagram story or even a picture on social media from screening is wrong then pushing us to remember that we have a mobile, a watch at a theatre is also a mistake! We buy a dream with the amount we can afford, how can dream merchants sell us uncomfortable dream and ask for Rem sleep pricing?

All I want is a writer to respect his own characters. Venky is definitely a very lovable hero and better actor too. We don’t need him to do a movie that just wants to crack a joke at us for coming to theaters to laugh. Oh, you want to laugh, here my jokes book laugh out loud and now pay the ticket price and walk-in again. When you can imagine a world where an actor like Pradeep (senior) seems fit, you can also imagine a world where at least Tamanna gets a better character if Mehreen seems a non-actor. It just feels like there is no effort to create characters and every ounce of energy went into creating Venky Aasan!

Theatrical Trailer: