Vakeel Saab Review

Vakeel Saab Review: Pawan Kalyan over Pink

Rating: 3/5

One of TFI’s biggest superstars, Pawan Kalyan, has returned to the big screens after a break of three years. Taking up the remake of Pink, the film Vakeel Saab has been heavily promoted and hit the screens today. Let’s see how the movie is.

Plot:

Vemula Pallavi (Nivetha Thomas), Zareena (Anjali), and Divya (Ananya Nagalla) are three middle class girls who get into a huge altercation with a group of men, led by Vamshi (Vamsi Krishna), who has been hurt in the eye. While the girls try to lead their life, the men threaten them from every angle and eventually kidnaps Pallavi and gets her arrested. When all is lost, Adv. Satyadev (Pawan Kalyan) takes up the case for the girls and fights the men in court. What happens next forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

The show-stealer is undoubtedly Pawan Kalyan. With his style and swag, it is so good to see him on the screen after so long. His vintage timing can be seen in the court scenes, where he is at his level best and brings freshness to the movie. He also does well emotionally, and brings the level of intensity required for such a heavy weight role. While the heroism does go a little bit over in parts, he makes sure to stick to the story and message. A memorable outing for him, and the perfect comeback. Next to him, Nivetha Thomas is amazing in an emotion-laden role, adding the emotional heavyweight needed. Anjali does well in the pre-climax scene, and Ananya Nagalla fits the bill. Prakash Raj as the opposite lawyer does well in the confrontations, and amidst the other actors, Vamsi Krishna and Amit Sarma do well as the baddies. Rest of the actors don’t make too much of an impact.

Writing/Direction:

Venu Sriram’s core story is almost all taken from Pink. As the movie is a remake of Pink, the story has been used for the most part. However, the difference here comes in with what Venu Sriram adds to the proceedings extra, mainly praise towards Pawan Kalyan with a political undertone as a saviour. The story of Pink itself is so intricate, so detailed, and has an important message that pertains to our society nowadays with really good writing. Venu Sriram translates most of that, but somewhere in the middle meshes the line between Pawan Kalyan heroism and an effective message about women empowerment, which ends up making the story less impactful. The story has been rewritten to focus completely on Pawan Kalyan, with unneeded heroic elements and commercial dialogues that make sure to extract the full Pawan Kalyan. The writing here, while doesn’t exclude anything, definitely keeps to the story. This is especially seen in the flashback; written so messily with heroic elements and a forceful romantic track, it takes away from the movie’s message. The heroism definitely works in the mass moments and it will work for the fans, but as a cinema goer it takes away from the pertinent message the story presents for itself. Fortunately, all is not lost all Sriram keeps the courts scenes with the same intensity; added with Pawan Kalyan’s vintage timing and swag, it intensifies them while keeping the message. Ultimately, the writing of the movie can be termed as decent; with the core plot of Pink, which in itself is very fresh, Venu Sriram adds extra elements that mostly hamper, but sometimes helps Vakeel Saab.

Venu Sriram’s direction and screenplay, on the other hand, are done tidily and complement the story really well, resulting in Vakeel Saab being a good watch at the end. Sriram’s screenplay is mostly done well, but there are once again commercial elements that in the scope of the screenplay make it seem forced, all mostly due to the writing. Barring the flashback scene, he keeps to the story well without deviating, especially seen in the second half in particular. In most of the portions, the screenplay of the movie is concise and keeps to the point really well. Particularly in the beginning, the movie channels the soul of Pink very well with most of the proceedings by leaving the movie’s focus on the women. Within the scope of the plot, he makes sure to keep the screenplay crisp with no lag, which can especially be seen in the second half in the court scenes. The screenplay also plays on some symbolic elements really well, such as the watch, and brings the message of the movie to the forefront really well. However, the screenplay suffers a lot from commercial elements, especially in the first half. When the movie is flowing really well with the tone of Pink, the flashback of Pawan Kalyan as a college student ruins the flow. The flashback isn’t picturized well either barring the songs, with the dialogues running with a huge political undertone and a constant effort to portray Pawan Kalyan as the savior of everything, including entire villages. Adding on to this, there are fights that pop up in the most random times and disrupt the flow. While they are done well, particularly the interval bang, from a screenplay perspective they are unnecessary and hamper the flow of the movie. They are very good for the fans however, as the BGM complements, but as a movie it hurts the movie. Yet, since most of the movie keeps true to Pink and runs on a smooth way, the commercial elements can be overlooked, particularly since they are done well. Sriram’s narration, barring the flashback scene, can be held to no complaints. He keeps the movie crisp with no boring moments per say and runs the movie along on a consistent pace.

First half of the movie is decent, but definitely leaves a lot to be left on the second half. The movie starts off really well with the Maguva Maguva song, beautiful on the screen, and goes along with the flow of the proceedings. If one has seen Pink, they can tell that the events have been translated almost exactly, which works well since it keeps the movie tight and engaging without any sort of deviation from the soul of the movie. The conflict between the 3 men and women is set up really well, ably aided by the element of suspense the movie maintains until the end. Amidst all of this, there is Pawan Kalyan’s intro scene that has politically motivated dialogues that are not needed, but with the BGM and how it pans out in the screen it is done well. The makers made sure that, in the first 45 minutes, to keep Pawan Kalyan with little screen presence as Amitabh and Ajith, focusing on the women and their struggles entirely aided by the BGM. Just when everything is going right, the flashback ends up as a huge speed breaker, stopping the flow of the movie drastically. In this flashback are unneeded fights and romance, taking away from the message and formulating a new message of Pawan Kalyan praise any way or form possible, through social messages and songs. The flashback, not done well, takes up 30 minutes and hampers the flow. Eventually, the interval bang and fight come to the screen; this is pure fan-worthy stuff, pictured really well with great acting and BGM, but continues the commercial line. Despite a good end, the second half has a lot riding with the underlying message.

The second half is much better, suffering from the same problem but thankfully doesn’t have the commercial elements to the extent of the first half. Primarily, its because of the court scenes done so well. Not only do they retain the original flavor of Pink, but Pawan Kalyan’s vintage timing is done so well. Sample this: when Nanda (Prakash Raj) goes on about the women being the assailants on the “innocent clients”, Pawan Kalyan says “mee acting ki Nandi ravalsinde”(your acting deserves a Nandi award). His diction, a Telangana one, is also a treat. These things, while commercial, are integrated into the proceedings really well and amplify the court scenes while staying true to the original’s subject matter. The women also get their space to perform really well, with each Nivetha, Anjali, and Ananya showing the emotions really well. The musical surprise is done well and sets up a grand ending. Yet, the commercial elements strike back with two fight blocks; while they are done well with enough of Pawan Kalyan swag being extracted and tribute moments, they act as serious speed breakers to the plot and again come out from the middle of nowhere, disturbing the flow of the movie. Particularly the metro fight, while is exhilarating, is commercial and leaves the rest of the movie on a commercial note. This is great for fans, but dilutes the impact of the ending, which is still done well to an extent. Overall, Vakeel Saab gets most things right, but the commercial elements end up hurting the movie.

Technicalities:

Thaman is producing amazing albums after amazing albums. The BGM is out of this world, bringing much needed life to the proceedings and inspiring more and more festivities among fans and audience. The music is also really good on the screen, pictured intensely well. Cinematography by PS Vinod is good, giving the movie the canvas that it needs to an extent. Dialogues are good in the court scene, but definitely overboard with the heroic and commercial aspect. Production values by SVCC are good, but watchers of the original wish for the rustic-ness the original had. Editing is crisp within the movie.

Final Verdict:

Overall, Vakeel Saab is a good comeback movie for Pawan Kalyan, but the weakest out of the three iterations of Pink. Positives of the movie are Pawan Kalyan and the three women performances, Thaman BGM, first 45 minutes of the movie, and most of the court scenes. On the flip side, a weak and drab flashback, commercial elements throughout the movie, and too many heroic dialogues hamper the movie. To sum it up, Vakeel Saab is a successful argument in court! PSPK is back, Feast for Fans!!