Sher

Synopsis: Like every movie which doesn’t work, this film’s story had ample scope to click but the director kills it as he haplessly follows a template which has been played out to the maximum

Movie Review: What can one expect from a film which features a really pointless “practice” session before the actual marriage happens? And the “practice” bride is a man, played by Fish Venkat who acts all shy! Well, going into the details of the particular sequence actually makes one wonder how and why Kalyan Ram let Sher happen.

Like every movie which doesn’t work, this film’s story had ample scope to click but the director’s approach kills it because along with nothing novel to tell, his narration is also as old as the hills haplessly following a template which has been played out to the maximum. A hero looking for revenge (haven’t we seen that a million times before?), a villain who has lot of subordinate cronies (who mostly seem to be grimacing for no reason or cracking some unfunny jokes), a heroine who falls in love easily (just because he “saves” the Indian flag from falling on the ground and she sees “national integrity” in that) and comedy (not funny again) coupled with innumerable songs - a formulaic run-of-the-mill outing which is a completely lost cause.

While references to family are aplenty – you see late NTR in his Krishna avatar and even Balayya makes an appearance in the same avatar – it is interesting how even the likes of Mahesh Babu and Pawan Kalyan are brought in. But all this is not entertaining and just manages to drive you up the wall.

The only saving grace in this film is the runtime of 118 minutes as opposed to the standard two and a half hour length. Then there’s a predictable twist in the tale which doesn’t hit you as hard as it wants to.

Kalyan Ram as Gautham has a lot of bashing up to do along with mouthing innumerable punch dialogues. He manages to give his best but somewhere, he doesn’t come off as the Sher one wishes him to be. And Sonal Chauhan as the selfie crazy photographer Nandini loses steam as the story unfolds. They are accompanied by Rao Ramesh (he is amazing even when he has nothing to do), Rohini (same here!), Vikramjeet Virk (he is a performer but a better story would benefit him a great deal) and several others who do what is asked of them. It’s still a wonder why Ashish Vidyarthi and Posani even agreed to be a part of this because they are thoroughly wasted.

Well, one could summarise the silliness of the film in this one instance: Sonal tells her family that she is going to win a photography competition. Next minute she is taking the award (we can see a lot of better photographs around) and then she returns home celebrating the award. All this happens in a span of less than 120 seconds.

Sigh. When the package is defective, it would be greedy to expect logic and intent from the contents inside.