Aadi Review

Adi is another Rayalaseema flick, so let's analyze it with respect to other Rayalaseema movies that have been made. First, the factors that needed to be ignored in order to savor the bouquet of this film: the physical characteristics of the hero come first, of course, followed by the some graphic violence which can be distracting, and, another of course, the fact that the story evokes déjá vu if you have seen the other movies in the Rayalaseema club.

Now let's ask the sommelier to pour the wine. Nagi Reddy (Rajan P Devan, last seen as Gudumba Satti in Kushi) kills Adi's father and implicates six trusted employees in the murder. Adi is still a helpless infant, and is smuggled out by well-wishers to Hyderabad.

14 years later, Adi (NTR Jr) is loitering, romancing, singing, dancing - basically all the things student-heroes in films do. The comedy track is too crass to deserve scrutiny by anyone with taste. And purely coincidentally, the girl who he dances with most of the time, Nandini (Keerti Chawla), happens to be Nagi Reddy's daughter. Only, everybody except the hero and the heroine's dad expects this coincidence, including 100% of the audience. The heroine returns after the interval for short cameos in the songs.

The story moves on to the confrontation between Nagi and Adi in Rayalaseema. What follows is an orgy of violence depicted with the help of explosions and bloodshed. Though impressively shot, it isn't highly advisable for the discerning palate. The ending of course is predictable, with the villain ending up six feet under and the lead pair tying the knot.

NTR Jr. deserves kudos for improving in the departments he was lagging behind in. Adding to his repertoire, he has managed to act well, apart from the dances and the fights that he executes impressively enough. Debutante director V V Vinayak has done well to portray the power feuds in Rayalaseema. The cinematography, having the advantage of aesthetic foreign locales, is laudable, too.

This movie manages to integrate all the elements that audiences appreciate. So, with the bouquet cultivated specially for the kind of customer who will be savoring this movie, 2002 may turn out to be a good year (at least for NTR Jr).