Sarkaaru Vaari Paata: Cringe Unlimited

Sarkaaru Vaari Paata Review

Star Cast: Mahesh Babu, Keerthy Suresh, Vennela Kishore, Subbaraju, Samuthrakani, Nadiya, Posani Krishna Murali, and Tanikella Bharani
Story & Direction: Parusram
Cinematographer: R Madhi
Editor: Marthand K Venkatesh

The greatest ever film lesson that Telugu filmmakers have learned from yesteryear legends is, “Watch ten films and write one film“. This kind of thought process is resulting in the worst kind of films with young filmmakers, who are unable to understand the gravitas of the opportunity that they have been presented with when a star hero gives them chance to direct a film. Yes, in the Indian Film Industry stars decide on their next film and the director whom they would work with. So, it is an opportunity that any director would wait for years after joining the film Industry to direct a star hero. Parasuram Petla said that he waited for ten years to direct a star hero in his career. After ten years he could make an impact with Geetha Govindam and get a chance to direct Mahesh Babu.

What film did he make? A cringe fest at its best. Let’s keep those crass comedy bits aside, I will talk about them but for this moment in the review, we will concentrate on other scenes. A middle-aged woman who caused havoc in his life is in front of him and the hero even though remembers everything stays aloof. Doesn’t even talk to her, as we are not shown complete conversation, but in the end, asks her if she is happy with all that happened. If you wanted to showcase a story where even though he is hurt by her actions, the hero decided to help her and overlook his pain, there lies the huge drama. For a star hero like Mahesh, Sarileru Neekuevvaru worked because of that one point that he is helping a woman who lost her son in the military during combat. Now, if that point seems routine to explore or exploit, no one expects Mahesh to come up with a brand new story every movie and he is unfortunately not doing that too. So, a movie that resembles his previous blockbuster won’t be taken too seriously.

When your emotional connection lies there and you try to force-fit a retired man‘s story and then force-fit revolution from the public just because one man decided to fight against a loan shark seems silly to the core. Lage Raho Munnabhai‘s film needed to use such a plot and Rajkumar Hirani used comedy to keep the proceedings light and found threads that will emotionally connect us. Not cringe comedy or portions where heroism is forcefully shown by introducing a handicapped bank employee who is the only one ready to serve notice to a Rajyasabha member. Had the director had a habit reading newspapers or at least tried to go through it once in a while, he would have seen officers who are famous thrusts and they would have easily backed up Mahesh in real life, in such a scenario. He could have created a character like Bunk Seenu from Manmadhudu with Sunil having the need to be famous among the bank employees and worked out some humor like in Gabbar Singh. Anyways, he is following or aping scenes from Businessman, Dookudu, Shivaji, Krack Beach fight, Srimanthudu, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Athidi and so many more.

People might argue commercial template films would match somewhere with some film. Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo film is a commercial template film and it had cringe love track still it connected audiences due to emotional seriousness in the story. The filmmaker did not let audiences know that hero is getting close to his own family in the last scene when everything is over. Instead, he came up with a unique solution to an age-old story and tried to make people accept it. Once the story gets serious, he did not use distracting cringe love scenes but instead converted them into passable romance. He used that track to cause problems for the hero with his own family. No film just becomes a hit as a fluke, things in that particular film work out. Here, scenes on the paper itself should have been rejected but they got shot and we were asked to clap for the heroism shown by Mahesh.

Cringe has been used by the latest generation for everything they dislike but this movie defines cringy comedy. You cannot get worse than that. A heroine who tries to use hero is understandable and if written right funny too. But here you don’t get the purpose of her going to the USA and gambling. When her father is so rich, won’t she be using bank credit cards to the maximum hilt? Can’t a hero give her a loan because of her background and when she tries to show attitude, can’t he fly to her hometown and directly fight with her source of arrogance? Won’t this done to death plot work better on a star hero than what we saw? Can a lady fan accept a scene where the hero forces himself on the heroine and puts his leg on her, even if they can, I can’t? I gave up on my sleep and caught an early show in the hope of getting entertained as they promised and these kinds of scenes are inexcusable. Whomever we might be each one of our opinions matters and for those who take offense, go and cry on your social handles. I don’t bother.

But these kinds of filmmakers who can’t respect a woman should be eradicated from Industry, immediately. If you can’t think of a scene that showcases romance just don’t write it. Nobody is asking you to show the hero putting a leg on the heroine and then both falling in love. Nobody is ever going to ask you to show a heroine having no character whatsoever. Maybe they are not even asking you to make a movie with a heroine in it but commercial cinema needs songs and romantic songs cannot happen in Indian Cinema for now without a heroine. This kind of comedy or romance or whatever name you give, if someone even writes on paper please tear them immediately and start writing again. That is not a comedy. That is not romance. That is not even good porn.

Coming to the other side…

The hero in this movie has no purpose in life. No problem but when he finds one we do not get clarity on what he found. Did he go to India to help Nadiya or did he just go for his cash? If he went for his cash and changed his motive, that needed to be clearly told. If he just wanted to see the heroine’s father and then after looking at his attitude decided to teach him a lesson then that had to be told. If you just go randomly from one scene to another without any connection, then what purpose will the hero have doing all those heroic deeds? The common public doesn’t know about how much EMI they are paying or whose loans they are clearing. Fine. Can a hero not give speeches and explain the same in a creative scene? Even that is hard to expect. Fine. Can a villain just be realistic in our films. Killing officials is not as easy as every film villain makes it look like. Can someone address that? Fine, you can’t. Can you at least give meaning to why he is killing? Just because someone asked him to pay back the loan, he killed. How many loan sharks are killing officials? Can we at least expect sense in writing? If Nadiya had been so ruthless in her job then how come only one man decided to help her? Why not her colleagues? Why there is no thread that really shows why she needed a hero whom she hurt the most to decide to help her? If you cannot respect what you have started to write then don’t expect people to respect you.

Finally, this movie deserves to tank at the box office to the levels of no other big-budget movie. If you work for two years and can’t even write a proper scene where the hero is elevated without any forceful entry then do you really deserve a big hero chance? If someone wants to still say that commercial films need such kind of scenes, mass people love it or class people want that, just go and watch all the flops again. What you say is what is being rejected. Come out of that old-school thinking and try to be fresh even if you can only work in a commercial format like KGF Chapter 2 or even to an extent RRR. Rajamouli kind of formulaic director is also looking to find innovative ways to keep himself to the story only whether you liked his scenes or not but his approach has been true to what his story is. Now, tell me where Parasuram Petla really gave you an impression of sticking to his plot and not roaming all around? In the game of snakes and ladders, when you climb up all the ladders and are ready to finish the game, there waits the biggest snake that spoils your victory. This movie is that snake for everyone involved.