Alex Review

If you could be clever enough to name the movie something that would make people take notice, couldn't you infuse just some of that cleverness into the darned story, huh? Huh? Huh???

Alex is actually just another Veerudu, Nayakudu, Andhrudu or Akhandudu, in disguise. It was meant to be that, but some nosy parker chipped into the movie-making team, and named it Alex to fool us. It is a chip of the old block after all, a slice of the same maggot-infested apple that a majority of Tollywood mass movies are today. It is the same old withering story of one man with a mountainous ego and zilch libido (causing him to give up all carnal needs), pursuing his karmic duty. To cleanse the earth of all evil.

Haranath plays Alexander or Alex, a cop who looks like he has been cursed by Harry Potter's Petrificus Totalus. That curse which turns one into stone. He has a perpetual goggle-eyed look, wearing which he pursues goons and villains, while simultaneously neglecting his duties as fiancé and boyfriend to Sangeeta. Eventually, sense dawns on the poor girl who dumps him.

He goes on to be inducted into a secret squad under Operation Blue Fox that has a motto "No enquiries, only encounters", and is out to wipe out all traces of crime in AP. The scenes of killings and shootouts follow, stringed together as indistinguishably as a sequence of train bogies.

Next to enter his life is Rambha the reporter, wearing short skirts and spectacles, and looking very pretty. She helps Alex track down Sunny, who ruins his life by getting him wrongly accused in an MLA murder case. Now, of course, the story has a lot more twists and turns than required to fill more two hours. But – yawn – believe me, they really don't matter.

From another ad nauseum encore of Suparichitudu by Venu Madhav, to an item number that copies its costumes and choreography from a Deepal Shaw video, this movie is filled with elements that are torturously evocative of previous hits. Only Rambha throws some brightness into the torpor with her unlikely costumes that she carries off so well.

The songs are all right, but guess no one will watch the movie to find that out. Rambha's acting stands out, while Haranath is as dull as the girl in the old Carefree ad before she switches her brand. In addition, there are tons of logical loopholes that make one wonder if the wrong parts got lopped off in the editing room.

It is rather weird for a man who directed a movie like In The Name Of Buddha to suddenly come up with such manifest triteness. Alex is full of such mysteries. Either there is something going on encoded in the scenes that you don't have a clue about, or this is simply the worst movie of the year. Save the worst for last types. Hopefully we won't have to find out.

All in all, Alex is a consummate bore. Stick to the review and don't venture near the movie.