'Takkar', produced by People Media Factory and Abhishek Agarwal Arts, hit the cinemas today.
Plot:
Gunashekhar aka Gunz (Siddharth) comes from an economically backward background. He wants to strike rich somehow and moves to Vizag. In a parallel track, Lucky (Divyansha Kaushik), the daughter of a millionaire, falls in love with him during a road trip.
Meanwhile, a gangster named Raza (Abhimanyu Singh) is on the hunt to trace Lucky. Why does he need her? What does Gunz do when he has to make a tough call? That's what the climax is about.
Performances:
Siddharth is not believable in the role of a poor, bullied guy. He looks too rich for the role, actually. As someone who knows his strengths and weaknesses (something his interviews make clear), it was hoped that the 'Bommarillu' actor would deliver some surprise. In a scene, he literally drives the Benz with stiff body language as if he were some robot. There was absolutely no need for such an act.
Divyansha Kaushik of 'Majili' fame plays a dim-witted, entitled woman who thinks she is a hippie; she is plain idiotic and is over-joyous, over-rebellious and over-weepy in turns. Yogi Babu headlines an intolerable track. Abhimanyu Singh fails to look the part of a semi-comical villain.
Technical aspects:
Nivas K Prasanna's songs are titled poetically. 'Nuvvo Sagam' and 'Pedhavulu Veedi Mounam' could impress the discerning. The picturization, however, doesn't bring the poetry to life. Vanchinathan Murugesan's cinematography doesn't contribute to the story-telling substantively even in the second half. GA Gowtham's editing is okayish.
Analysis:
The trailer of the movie was cut in such a way as to make us believe that the second half is the first half. The first hour of the film actually goes into setting up the jarring world of the film. 'Takkar' is no romantic thriller but a template-ish action entertainer that doesn't know how to explore its genre.
'Takkar' becomes genre-blind when its antagonist is saddled with a clownish sidekick for the rest of the film. If the villains are silly, the heroine doubles down on her lack of clarity. She doesn't believe in love but takes just two hours to fall in love with the hero. Before we know it, she starts pining for Gunz as though they are star-crossed lovers who first lived four hundred years ago, only to be reborn to be reunited amid crazy chases and manhunts in 2023.
Writer-director Karthik G Krish is not clear about the tone of the film. He wants to make the journey of Gunz and Lucky feel bohemian. Instead, their journey becomes fluffy.
Closing Remarks:
'Takkar' is one wasted opportunity. If the villains are inept, the hero-heroine duo sleepwalk through a lifeless romantic track.
