Autonagar Surya

Synopsis: The most remarkable aspect of the film is the realistic art direction. The set of Autonagar and the working class set up seems very believable adding a semblance of believability to the proceedings.

Movie Review: You know that mixed feeling when you stumble across a photograph and realise how different you looked then. Looking at the lead pair it’s obvious the movie was made in 2012. While Chaitanya's look has a huge hangover of Bejawada while Samantha looks like she walked in straight from the sets of Eega. And the plot is a throwback to the nineties. Rather a pseudo intellectualised mish mash of old films like Shiva, Mutha Mesthri and Ghulam.

The film begins on a philosophical showboating note with proclamations about how mankind is driven by the power of the ideas and how it isn't the society that controls the man. Manishi ante ela brathakali anni nirnayinchedi kadhu Vyavastha, Manishe Vyavastha... (Society isn't that which determines how a man must live, but it's an embodiment of man) prophecies the good natured jailor to the teenaged Surya. The dialogues are loaded to references to references to ideas like objectivism of Ayn Rand, Marxian principles of dialectical materialism and revolutionary action etc. However, the intellectual pretentions in the dialogues don't translate into the filmmaking, neither in technique or narrative style, and that's where we see the gap between intentions and execution and perhaps even know how.

For starters the film borrows the same old Tollywood potboiler clichés in the characterisations. Surya is orphaned when his parents are murdered by the villain. Growing up in a "mechanic shed" in Autonagar he turns out to become a wizard who invents the first of its kind diesel car - just in case you were wondering the movie is set in the eighties. Then he has a childhood sweetheart - his maradalu (cousin), three good friends and a heart of gold. We have a Mayor for a villain, corrupt union leaders and bureaucrats who all behave like they were born to be wicked. Then we have the usual suspects - forced comedy tracks with Brahmanandam, the statutory six Shiva styled realistic fights, songs and an item number to round it off.

There isn't anything non stereotypical about the narrative flow either. Well, the acting looks as forced as everything else about the film. Naga Chaitanya just doesn't look the part and must give up on trying living up to that Shiva legacy. It didn't work with Josh neither does it here. It's probably a case of wrong casting than bad acting. In any case it's a lame plot and no amount of acting could have salvaged it. Samantha does the sweet girl act with aplomb. The music is well run-of-the-mill as is the action. Everything about this movie is a little too wannabe.

The most remarkable aspect of the film is the realistic art direction. The set of Autonagar and the working class set up seems very believable adding a semblance of believability to the proceedings. Yes the background score is the other bright spot in an otherwise mediocre product.