Happy Review

One way of differentiating an ordinary movie plot, or the lack of even that, is to push it to complete hysterics, and then snap it back like a rubber band. That way, even a tale as straight as a die can seem like a coma-induced return-trip to Pearly Gates. You can put the story into a sugarcane juicer and extract the very last drop of nectar, and I guess that is probably the sign of a good director, because in Happy, it just manages to get away as smoothly as a fox making off with the chicken in the night.

Happy has Allu Arjun playing Bunny, arguably the strongest, most superhuman man of steel in the league of extraordinary gentlemen that are Tollywood heroes. Let me pause to dwell a few seconds on this because his incredible pow is one of the major underpinnings of this tale.

Lesser heroes have crumbled at least halfway through the movie to bands of beefy thugs with hockey sticks, but Bunny NEVER, and I repeat NEVER, gives way. There are interstitial losses, yes, but there is never a time when the villain stands upright with one leg resting on Bunny's limp body. Bunny is Bhima, brawn personified. He never eats dirt. And that kinda makes the story easier, floatier, more upbeat and happier.

Now our Bunnyman, like all superheroes, has a nerdy alter ego, that of a pizza delivery guy. He gets to meet Madhumati (Genelia), a student of medicine and the daughter of a caste-based politician who is as ugly a villain as they come. The father keeps her constantly suppressed and screaming like an anaconda does its prey. She's therefore always on her toes, and fearing for her education that she wants to complete desperately to honor the wishes of her dead mother, another woman who died agonizing under his inhumanity.

The obvious proceeds to happen without much ado, and Bunny and Madhu fall in love. In the middle of it all, like a prickly sore-throat, pops Manoj Bajpai, the DCP who is signed up to marry Madhumati. When told they are in love, he adopts Madhu and Bunny as his two little roses (in his words) and shields them from her brutal father. Rama Prabha plays Madhu's grandmother.

There are a couple of other elements that provide the twists to extend the flick to 2-1/2 hours. The first is another ACP who mushrooms like a gremlin and takes an oath to destroy Madhumati's family. Second, there is the geometrically multiplying love of Bunny for Madhu that gets him into death-defying stunts for the fight-director of a movie. Together they populate the desolate arctic landscape of the threadbare story with little blossoms that quickly follow each other so that the simple tale of the movie, like we mentioned before, succeeds in becoming a bonafide plot.

The music is jazzy, with booming percussion, quite resonant with the racy feel of the film. Happy stops being happy for a few seconds towards the end where the gremlin ACP is bashing up both lovers and humiliating Bunny's dad-in-law, but Bunnyman quickly finds his Kryptonite i. e. his beloved Madhu's flailing voice that goads him into a reprisal. All ends well.

Allu Arjun's dancing skills are commendable, while his delivery of the slam-dunking dialogues is a highlight of the film. Madhu plays the fluttering dandelion shivering in the wind, looking pretty and inspiring protectiveness. Her most intense scene is one in which she screws up her face and looks verreee angry. You can say she is adequate.

As for the big question, whether you can and should watch Happy - the answer is yes. Merely because it is a tad happier than some of the other flicks around, and takes a little longer than average to relapse into melodrama. Now who wants to bawl into the pop-corn carton at a movie theater? And even if you don't, it is a relief when the director is not trying to make you. Happy isn't completely blameless on that front, but it might just pass muster under your scrutiny.