Vijayendra Varma Review

Balayya movies rock big time. They are a different genre all together. They cater to a whole generation of adrenaline junkies that love pacey flicks. Likewise, even Vijayendra Varma is pacey and caters to a generation. We're not too sure of course if 'dumb and vulgar' can be called a generation...

Vijayendra Varma (Balakrishna) starts the movie from a forest. But he is not Vijayendra Varma. Nor is this a forest. Because it's really unprofitable to import industrial levels of make-up into a forest. But people have other nuances to wonder about. Like who is Balakrishna? What is Laya (his wife) hiding from him? Why is he able to depict extraordinary combat skills when he's just an ordinary guy that wears a lot of make-up in the forest? Why was I lied to, all these years, about gravity? Why? How? What?

Our questions are duly answered after the 86th song-comedy-sentiment-action sequence. This has been the basic problem with Balayya movies lately. No doubt even Samarasimha Reddy and Narasimha Naidu also followed the song-comedy-sentiment-action sequences. But in those, the story was a cohesive force. Here, everything looks disjointed and irrelevant. And we haven't even gotten as far as the flashback yet.

So seven years ago, Balakrishna was found in the river by Laya and the others. He had quite a few bullet wounds, and it becomes increasingly difficult for him to tell these people who he was. Especially since he's unconscious. Even after he comes to, he cannot recollect his identity.

Now, after discovering the real story, he heads to Hyderabad to find out who he is. Once here, he discovers that he's Vijayawada Varma. This good looking army guy struck terror in the hearts of Jihadi terrorists (Mukesh Rishi and Ashish Vidyarthi). So they play dirty and massacre his loved ones (Ankita). But now he's back. And he makes them pay. They're only glad to pay. Anything to get out of this messy flick.

The makers tried to squeeze in too much into a single, already overburdened movie, here. They even tried pulling off a secularism stunt through the role of a Muslim patriot. But it just doesn't work. The makers might complain - "we gave you everything - action, drama, suspense, sentiment, patriotism, secularism, ridiculous graphics, fast numbers, headache, what else do you want? Oh, common sense? Logic? Gravity? Trademark Balayya dialogues? You want those also, eh? You over demanding audiences, you!"

Really, apart from Balakrishna and his majestic screen presence, and a good performance from Laya, Vijayendra Varma will give you everything you need to come down from the top of the theatre head first via the roof.