Wanted (Gopichand) Review

What can you say about a movie that reminds you of about 8,76,94,890 other movies? What can you say about a movie during which if you don't pay attention for about 25 minutes you still don't miss anything? What can you say about a movie that makes Mogalirekulu seem like a thriller? Not a lot.

The apathy between Wanted and its audiences is mutual - neither does it care much about its audience, nor does the latter care. Wanted is probably good as a photoshoot showcasing its well-groomed hero. As a film, it does little more than keep you awake for a couple of hours. Actually, mostly not.

Gopichand plays the loafing hero whose parents - who are too obscenely rich for a couple of government employees - have pampered him by hoarding up on bribes. They'd hate to see him work, so our man spends his time doing nothing but fool around and beat up people he doesn't like.

A girl with a mysterious past enters his life, and he pursues her. What follows is cinematic material that's enough for an indefinite bathroom break.

With a story as old as nothing you can think of, Wanted unapologetically goes on and on. The fights, songs and "comedy" are the parts of the movie that are merely cliched; the rest are plain annoying.

For example, the romance is a put-off; since the hero is almost continuously screaming at the woman he supposedly loves, for no fault of hers. He insults her whether she spurns him, whether she's being molested by random goons on the road, or whether she's merely cowering in a railway station. And we're not even talking about the ill-placed songs.

We know that no one's expecting this movie to be a champion of women's lib, or a literature essay, but a little sanity and logic would have helped.

Then, Wanted has the usual web of villains that every formula flick uses - villains who have the same peeves, the same grunts and growls, the same fetishes for objectifying women and innocent bystanders, and the same lack of basic strategy-skills that enables the hero to take on a 100 of their kind at once and finish them all.

The film rides mainly on Gopichand's star power, and really, there's more nothing he can do to make things better. His character is not one you can admire or look up to, his dialogues are devoid of any creativity, and the scenes written to cash on his macho image are the stuff that would make an assembly line proud of its efficiency.

Deeksha Seth has a very real look about her, but she's probably not the right for the part of a heroine who has to brood or fume throughout the movie. The comedy track featuring Brahmanandam is sad - and it's monotonous to see the man do the same thing in every movie now. The casting, in general, is pretty good, but the run-of-the-mill writing does it in.

The slick visuals and Chakri's music are among the better things Wanted has going for it. The songs are stylishly picturized, and the action sequences have an edge to them.

Superlatively boring, Wanted should ideally be skipped for best results.