Bhola Shankar Review

Twenty years have passed since we saw Chiranjeevi as Shankar, the taxi driver with a mysterious past. But go to the nearest theatre and you can once again watch the Megastar play a mysterious-past-wala taxi driver Shankar as he did in Indra (2002). Is this what it means to have one's life come full circle? Chiru has the undying respect of Telugu audiences, but rather than use this goodwill to propel the film industry forward, he perplexingly insists on running in the same place, and, as in this instance, while wearing someone else's stinky shoes. Bhola Shankar, directed by Meher Ramesh, is a remake of Ajith's 2015 Tamil film, Vedalam. As with Chiranjeevi's last remake, Godfather, a lot gets watered down and distorted in this uninspired retelling. And ultimately, it is worsened.

Bhola Shankar opens with frenzied scenes of a human trafficking ring. Across Kolkata, young women are forcibly taken from the streets, drugged, and then auctioned off to foreign buyers. Shankar (Chiranjeevi) and his sister (Mahalakshmi) arrive in the city at the height of this panic. From the outside, Shankar appears to be a regular taxi driver and a caring older brother. But when he jumps through a glass window and cuts up thirty-three criminals with a katana, Shankar's secret past life and his antagonistic relationship with the traffickers come to light.

Cue the tragic backstory.

The formulaic storyline is not the only element that makes Bhola Shankar feel like a movie from the 2000s. The fight scenes, of which there are many, are choreographed to be so unoriginal that instead of recoiling in horror, one yawns out of boredom. Slow-motion cuts of men spinning in the air like figure skaters before smashing into the dust - haven't we seen this a million times before? Bholaa Shankar wants us to see it a million times more.

The songs are just more of the same outdated pap that this film ceaselessly churns out. Like that "foreign location lover's song" where Chiranjeevi and his lady interest Lasya (Tamannah) dance by a waterfall. (At this point I could tell you more about Tamannah's character, but it would make no difference to you or to my review, as it makes no difference in the story either. She appears to have been cast so there can be a song with lyrics that go "milky beauty, neeku naaku dating party".)

Too busy building up Chiranjeevi's character through innumerable fights and songs, the movie neglects its villain, Alexander (Dino Morea). He is a cartoonishly evil character, always arriving at places by helicopter and conducting his business on cruise ships. His army of criminals is loud and visibly tattooed (how else do you show the bad guys?). They talk with the emotional subtlety of an air horn, shouting out every line like they are about to burst a blood vessel.

Superficial portrayals are all over the screenplay. Just take its depiction of Kolkata. If the popular North-Indian stereotype about the South is that we all love a big bowl of idli sambar, then per Bhola, Kolkata is the city of yellow taxis, Durga Pujo and Kali Matha. With these reference points, it takes almost no imagination, then, to portray Chiranjeevi as a Kali incarnate, hoisting villains over his head, and stamping them under his feet as the goddess does. At least, his tongue thankfully stays in his mouth.

Even without my mentioning Vennela Kishore's joker-cum-clown character or Chiranjeevi's impression of Pawan Kalyan's character from Kushi, you must by now realize the unimaginative depths that Bhola Shankar plumbs to for its content. Keerthy Suresh's earnest performance can't save it. Chiranjeevi's star power can't save it. The brief moment of hope I felt for the superstar movie genre as I watched Rajinikanth's Jailer has now, once again, vapourized.