Temper

Story: The film narrates the story of Daya, a corrupt cop, and how his life changes when he encounters the death of a young girl.

Movie Review: There’s a scene in Temper, where NTR, who plays a corrupt cop Daya, goes through an emotional upheaval. He doesn’t know what he is doing and his silence shocks everyone around him. Moments later, tears trickle down his eyes and finally, his associate Murthy (Posani Murali Krishna) salutes him. And what happens next will blow your mind, quite literally. Daya goes berserk and bashes up the goons in the police station and soon, you realise that he has found a purpose to reinvent himself. At this precise moment, you can’t help but wonder if NTR, the real actor, finally found a purpose to unleash the cinematic beast that has been dormant deep within his sub consciousness for a while now. He does just that and how!

Temper is the kind of film where the reel and real life persona of its lead actor, NTR, merges seamlessly and in the end, that’s the only thing that matters. Everything about the film is just a catalyst to reinforce NTR’s larger-than-life image and for most part of the film, even the story, which is almost like a prop, takes a backseat.

The film begins in typical Puri Jagannadh’s style. The hero Daya (NTR) is an orphan who is fascinated with corruption that’s rampant in the society. One fine day, he decides to become a cop and several years later, when he achieves his dream, he uses every trick in the book to make a quick buck. When he’s transferred to Vizag, he befriends Valther Vasu (Prakash Raj), a local don, and lets him and his associates off the hook on several occasions. Daya’s subordinate Murthy (Posani Murali Krishna) hates his corrupt ways and often argues with him, but his voice of reason falls on deaf ears. The rest of the story is about how Daya mends his ways when he comes face-to-face with the consequences of his actions and how his decisions have wrecked lives of several commoners.

It’s a film where subtlety has absolutely no place and nothing is left to your imagination. Naturally, every aspect of the film including the drama, the dialogues, the action sequences, the background score and even the characterisations is loud. Thankfully, in the film’s second half, all these fall in place, which make the proceedings quite gripping and intense. The film dabbles with an age old story and one that’s quite similar to the recently released Kalyanram starrer Pataas; however, in this case, the focus is solely on NTR, who is at ease in his new avatar. The actor has gone through a major makeover in terms of his styling, voice modulation and his new found confidence clearly shows on screen. Kajal Aggarwal, who plays an animal lover, is the emotional anchor in Daya’s life. Despite her limited role, the actress does well, although the duo’s underwritten romantic track leaves a lot to be desired. Apart from NTR, it is Posani Murali Krishna who rises to the occasion to deliver a good performance and in the course of the film Puri Jagannadh uses Posani as a pawn to elevate NTR’s heroism. Prakash Raj breezes through his role whereas Madhuurima’s makes her presence felt.

The film also touches upon atrocities against women and how the culprits go scot-free because of the loopholes in the judiciary system. While Puri Jagannadh doesn’t offer a solution to the issue, this social issue becomes a canvas for the story itself and it inspires the lead character to redeem his sins. In the end, Temper comes across as a film which was meant for NTR to reinvent himself, for Puri to prove that he hasn’t lost his mojo yet, for NTR’s fans, whose unflinching faith in the actor hasn’t diminished at all. It succeeds in achieving all that, despite its share of flaws and a lackluster first half. Nothing else matters.