Pourudu Review

Pourudu is a sincere effort to make an average movie, and it succeeds. It has all the vital ingredients - a clichéd script, B-list actors, slow pace and lack of dense texture. If you did not understand the last bit, ignore it - the other three are enough. If you did not understand the other three, however, then these people are looking just for you. Please check showtimes on the left, and call the theater to tell them to expect you.

Pourudu deals with the story of Ajay (Sumanth), who is a top ranker in the Civil Services Mains examination, a black belt in multiple martial arts, handsome, well-built, compassionate, ethical, and capable of lifting the Govardhana mountain on his little finger. Okay, maybe he can't do the last, but given the list till then, it would seem logical if he could.

Ajay's big problem in life is his father Pandu Ranga Rao (Suman), who is the trusted henchman of Zakir Bhai (Nasser), who runs a parallel government taking on criminals who hurt the innocent. Ajay and Pandu don't see each other's points of view - Ajay totally disapproves of hooliganism, and Pandu totally disapproves of anyone topping any exam. However, they are a mutually caring father-son duo, and love each other a lot.

The problems for Ajay start when his father's acts start having repercussions on his life - he is preparing for his final interview for IAS selections, and as we all know, you can't have any association with crime at least before becoming an IAS officer. Plus, the closest that he can fill in the "Father's Occupation" column is "NGO", which might seem interesting to the interviewers who can start asking more questions.

Indeed, his father's activities catch up with Ajay, and when he finally has to beat up a dozen goons to save his father once, he gets into jail along with dad. He decides finally that he's had enough, and separates from Pandu, moving to the house of his love Samyukta (Kajal Agarwal). Then, his dad is killed in a gangwar, and a devastated Ajay declares open season on the mafia.

Pourudu is a movie that would have been interesting to see if it came from Ram Gopal Varma. The richness in detail and creativity in screenplay conceptualization that a common script like this needs are absent in Raj Aditya's final product - the dialogues and sound are uninspired, the songs with the possible exception of Chalre Chalre are a bother, and the editing is less than pulsating.

You can't fault the performances - all principal actors are experienced, and deliver what is needed of them. Even the relative newcomer Kajal puts in a spirited act. However, the problems with the film are an all-too-familiar plot and languid pace, and lack of too many adrenaline-pumping scenes in what is essentially a revenge drama. There's no intelligent plotting in how Ajay deals with the gangs - it's just brute force, with the martial arts background serving as a blank cheque.

Pourudu might be an option if there is no transparency or accountability in how you choose to watch movies, but if you are looking for some real entertainment, try the one that showcases it explicitly.