Agent

Story: The Wild One aka Rikki aka Ramakrishna (Akhil Akkineni) wants to be an agent and the RAW chief The Devil aka Mahadev (Mammootty) inexplicably gives him a chance. What happens when a straightforward mission goes haywire?

Review: Surender Reddy’s Agent is a hard film to sit through. The way the narrative unfolds, it seems like the makers believe they’re offering us a novel story (they’re really not). Right from the get-go, you’re thrown into chaos and while it all seems interesting on paper, the execution feels half-hearted.

Rikki (Akhil Akkineni) is the not-so-usual boy-next-door who dreams of being a RAW agent. While his father (Murli Sharma) bemoans that he’s wasting time, Rikki is trying to get recruited by RAW and getting rejected. He has a not-so-bright idea to get the attention of RAW chief Mahadev (Mammootty) that sounds too silly to comprehend but apparently works because this is commercial cinema. He also falls for a NASA aspirant (Sakshi Vaidya) who sashays in and out of the story whenever it’s convenient. However, a syndicate head called The God aka Dharma (Dino Morea) threatens to disrupt Devil’s peace, and so does The Wild One it looks like.

Rikki is a loose cannon who likes doing things his way. Essentially, he’s a Puri Jagannadh hero stuck in a Surender Reddy film. He’s unpredictable, bratty, loud, and calling him unhinged would sometimes be an understatement. The number of times the word ‘wild’ is unnecessarily used could be turned into a game to pass time. Despite all that, Rikki is never really given the opportunity to unleash his craziness. At the most, he gets to do it trice. The rest of it is as predictable as they come minus the edge-of-the-seat moments that’s expected of any spy thriller.

The way Rikki’s love track plays out, it sticks out like a sore thumb, so does Hiphop Tamizha’s music. Some of the songs are so oddly placed, you don't know if they offer respite or just plain annoy. The BGM is an assault on the ears, so is the accent certain key characters randomly slip into. The biggest drawback of the film lies in the emotional sequences. While they all sound so good on paper, none of them translate well on-screen because you’re never given enough time to soak it all in. Major reveals involving Rikki, Devil and God’s characters play out on-screen with such nonchalance, you never fully understand the weight of it all. The silly climax and shoddy VFX just add to the woes.

And that’s a shame because Akhil has the time of his life playing Rikki and it shows on-screen. Be it when he’s flexing his six-pack or grinning maniacally or dancing his way through an action sequence (you read that right) – he seems to enjoy it all. Even if he goes overboard at times, he essays the character fairly well. Sakshi looks adorable and acts fine, it’s a shame she doesn’t get much to do. Mammootty breezes through his role and while Dino Morea tries his best to lend his cookie-cutter antagonist some gravitas. There are numerous other characters that pepper the film, like the one played by Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, that don't really add to anything.

Agent is a spy thriller that commits the blasphemy of being boring. And Akhil’s ‘wild’ act might save the country but it’s not enough to save the film.