Acharya Review

Acharya Review: All Alla Kallolam

Rating: 2.25/5

After 2.5 years, Chiranjeevi finally makes a return to the big screen in and as Acharya. Starring Mega Power Star Ram Charan in a significant role as well and with hit machine director Koratala Siva at the helm, the much hyped movie has finally hit the screens. Let’s see how it is.

Plot:

Comrade Acharya (Chiranjeevi) enters Dharmasthali on a mission to once again unite it with the righteous Padhaghattam and remove the bad from it, primarily heralded by Rathore (Jisshu Sengupta) and Basava (Sonu Sood). While he goes through the village and tries to help them, it is revealed that he has a connect for the village through Siddha (Ram Charan). Who is Siddha, what is the connect, and what Acharya will do to save the village forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan take center stage, as expected, in roles that have been written quite surface level for the established actors. While their bromance and on screen chemistry is one of the major highlights of the movie, their roles have almost no scope to perform. Especially Chiranjeevi: his character is not only subtle but has almost the same character trend throughout with no development. He plays it well, but there isn’t anything there for him to shine. Ram Charans role is slightly better, but that isn’t saying much as it is also predictable and stale. He does well in the scenes he gets, but it isn’t anything great. Pooja Hedge is once again lost in the shadows in a insignificant role. Ajay does well in a meaty supporting role, while Sonu Sood and Jisshu Sengupta get unarguably the weakest Koratala villain roles to date with the most stereotypical moments. Rest of the characters have no impact on anything in the story.

Writing/Direction:

This is not only Koratala’s most stale and predictable script to date, but it is also his weakest writing effort with no sense of buildup or cinematic experience attached to the way he has written the script. Koratala’s story itself is very predictable and routine, with the audience understanding the entire story the moment the first frame plays. His scripts generally are not that different either, mostly having some tropes, but the difference here is that the script has not been written convincingly at all with some element of freshness. In Mirchi it was the stark difference in characterization and comedy, Srimanthudu heralded a fresh sense of subtle mass, Janatha Garage had a very strong emotional connect, but there is nothing to keep the story exciting here. Scene after scene, the writings predictability plays a huge part in what it does, eventually leaving the story to be nothing more than a pale one liner. Events keep coming and going as per pure convenience and are written stalely without any relation to the events before it, resulting in a severe lethargic moment throughout the writing. None of the writing is developed either; the character arcs are left in the wind without a proper justification or depth associated with them, the events that happen just happen without any sort of layered buildup, and the movie keeps on to a routine and seen before template for whatever is happening. As a result, everything goes for a toss: the impact, the emotional connection, the writing is so one note and plain that, along with the same old feel of the plot. There isn’t any commercial lag, but even then the movie doesn’t have any elements written well to entice the audience. The only scenes that have been written well are some scenes between Chiru and Ram Charan, which work only because of the never seen factor, but even then the writing remains a colossal failure.

Koratala’s screenplay with this writing is below par – par at best, while his direction is abysmal in everyway. For cinema to be effective, the screenplay needs to stay focused to the main point of the story and develop the story in such a way to engulf the audience in the world that has been created. While the screenplay stays focused to the plot (thank the lords for editing out Kajal as it would have been torturous and brought down the rate), the screenplay still misses the mark. The screenplay is very choppily written from Koratala with no proper sense of flow in the events. With such a bare writing and story throughout and no proper character arcs, one expects to be properly transported to the world of Padhaghattam and Dharmasthali at least. There is none of that in the screenplay, with events coming and going as they please without a proper sense of buildup. Establishing the story and setting is decent, but when the setting isn’t used by the screenplay is when the movie goes astray. That happens exactly in Acharya; there isn’t hero worship or excessive elements, but the story isn’t used at all to create a convincing visual experience. The movies screenplay unfolds like a bullet point list; whenever a problem arises, conveniently the solution comes in the next scene. Everyone questions who this man is, next scene they know his flashback. There isn’t that sense of engulfing story, largely due to a choppy screenplay that doesn’t allow the story to unfold nor develop. The screenplay gets better in the flashback, but for the present day stays choppy and superficial. If that itself is bad, the direction and narration are poor. The direction throughout the movie is focused on the wrong things, with gimmicks preferred to enveloping a story. The pacing is often too fast, as some time needs to be left to develop the story. Sivas narration is dull for any sense of movie, with none of the commercial energy being extracted to any of the scenes. The events just happen without any anticipation; even the fight scenes that look great are just there without creating an impact. Fortunately, to some extent the second half’s flashback is narrated decently off the backs of the leading men, but that doesn’t salvage Acharya. The story is narrated abhorrently with a dull energy, and paired with a stale plot, that itself is a recipe for disaster.

First half is poor by any standards, establishing the world of Dharmasthali and Padhaghattam but soon running out of steam. After an interesting introduction heralded by Mahesh Babu’s voice, the movie shifts to establish the state of Dharmasthali by showing the various atrocities. While this is done well to set a base, the movie slips big time from the moment Chiranjeevi enters. His entry itself comes out of the middle of nowhere, indicative of a falling screenplay. The song Laahe Laahe’s terrible picturization doesn’t help, and soon the film resumes its droning. The dull narration and choppy screenplay hamper whatever the first half tries to inspire, with the bland scenes coming and going repeatedly. The same scene happens 10 times it feels like, with a problem arising and some brief fight resuming. What’s worse is the BGM, which doesn’t have that pulsating feel anywhere, and the dialogues, which end up either being same old routine dialogues or so inadvertently complex. Chiranjeevi himself can’t do anything, as his role is so bland that his natural swag and screen presence is heavily diluted. The fights, the item song Saaana Kashtam, nothing makes a difference because it is all picturized very badly. Eventually, the movie keeps droning towards the interval which is done well for once with the introduction of a crucial character. While the fight also just exists, the scene and dialogue with which the interval concludes leaves the audience on a high and sets them up for the very VERY important second half.

The second half is better for sure than the first half, but that ultimately doesn’t salvage the rest of the movie and just helps it from tanking without a trace. The flashback resumes with Ram Charan coming in, and this is narrated somewhat better with the same choppy screenplay resulting throughout. The forced romantic track and Neelambari song doesn’t make things any better, but it keeps things moving at a reasonable pace in the second half without many important speed breakers. An important fight scene, which is shot well, eventually translates to the best part of the movie: the naxalite scenes and bonding of Chiranjeevi and Charan. These scenes, with a good rationale and flashback, are shown well as the bonding of Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan takes center stage overall. Throughout these scenes, the screenplay and writing gets better as Siva delves into what makes the relationship between these two character so strong. This leads to the fight scene in the coal mine and the song Bhale Banjara, undoubtedly the best parts of the movie; while the fight scene shows a more comedic side to the duo and brings out some vintage Chiranjeevi, the song Bhale Banjara is picturized well as a feast for the fans. Eventually, the movie translates back to the main point and continues along the flashback. The predictability hampers the movie here with the expected outcome, leading to the climax fight. The climax fight is purely bliss from a cinematography standard, with Thiru doing the heavy lifting, but ultimately the poor narration comes back. Overall, Koratala Siva’s weakest work ends up sinking the entire movie down a point of no return.

Technicalities:

Mani Sharma’s songs are good from an audio standpoint, but on screen are poor except for two in the second half. His BGM is also a heavy mixed bag, with some scenes hitting well because of the BGM and some scenes not having a good BGM at all. Cinematography by Thiru and art direction is the major highlight of the movie. While Thiru livens the movie with his amazing shots and color schemes, the art direction has set the world of Padhaghattam and Dharmasthali quite well. The dialogues are also a mixed bag, while editing is sharp at some scenes. VFX is quite poor as the de aging of Chiranjeevi has not come well at all.

Final Verdict:

The Rajamouli Curse has been proven again with flying colors, taking Koratala Siva as bait this time. He has no one but himself to blame this time however, with poor writing, screenplay, and direction. Positives are interval bang, Chiranjeevi-Ram Charan bromance and chemistry, some naxal scenes in the second half (Bhale Banjara and coal fight), cinematography, and art direction. On the flip side, predictable and stale writing, superficial character arcs, weak villains, poor BGM and VFX, hapless direction and narration, choppy and uninterested screenplay, and underdeveloped story hurt the movie big time. To sum it up, distributors have to start saying Acharya, Raksho Bhava: Acharya, rescue us from this debacle