'Aadikeshava', produced by Sithara Entertainments and Fortune Four Cinemas, was released in theatres today. Here is our review of the latest BO release:
Plot:
Balu (Vaisshnav Tej) heads the sales department at a cosmetic company run by the visionary entrepreneur Chitra (Sree Leela). In no time, she swiftly falls in love with his galaxy brain. In no time, they might get married and Balu might become the company's super CEO less than a year after reluctantly starting his career. But then, fate has other plans. He has to move to Rayalaseema where he must save his ancestral temple from being taken over by a ruthless savage (debutant Joju George).
Post-Mortem:
This is the kind of a film where an otherwise city-bred, jeans-wearing, happy-go-lucky dude takes more time securing a white-collar job interview than to make an extraordinary promise to a person he had met just hours ago: "I will go to any lengths to ensure that menacing aggressor doesn't trouble you. I will confront and, if necessary, eliminate him. Fear not, even though we were complete strangers until yesterday!" These are not his exact words but you get a taste of Balu's extra-terrestrial heroism, right?
If you have watched the movie's trailer and listened to debutant director Srikanth N Reddy's interviews, you can literally guess the entire movie except the epilogue, which is so unthinkably silly that it flips the identity of the male lead in such a way that you will want to slap yourself one final time. In the interviews, for the unversed, the director had spoken about Mica mining and related child deaths. Phew!
The scenes were written with a checklist in place. The hero helps a child labour with a quick snack and bowls over the heroine. He goes on to deliver instant punishment to a pedophile, to which the heroine is not a witness. Just to make sure that the heroine is informed about his sensitivity toward women, his mother helpfully narrates a childhood episode in her presence, in a police station: 'As a child, he helped a girl who was on her periods with his shirt. The whole planet arrived at our doorsteps to return the shirt and profusely thank my upbringing'. Thanks! The heroine (who, by the way, is the CEO of the company where our hero is just an employee) is flabbergasted that she is damn lucky to have found a man who respects women.
The film's attempt to make a mass hero out of Vaisshnav Tej comes to the fore in the second half. Twice in this hour, some or the other baddie tries to provoke our hero into suspending a ritual midway. But he won't be provoked into leaving the ritual come what may. He calculates his moves with surgical precision, gets up at the right time and burns the baddie alive!
Vaisshnav Tej's body language lacks the agility and energy for a role of this sort. Sree Leela is just about okay because of the songs in the first half. Joju George is wasted in a caricaturish role with no distinct features. Raadhika Sarathkumar and Jayaprakash, as the hero's parents, are watchable. Aparna Das, as the political candidate, is good. Sada of 'Jayam' fame shows potential.
GV Prakash Kumar's background score and songs leave no mark. Dudley's cinematography is average.
Closing Remarks:
'Aadikeshava' is a costly misfire. It is a heap of mechanical attacks and deadpan revenge killings with no personality of its own. In recent years, three films should never have been made: 'The Warriorr', 'Macherla Niyojakavargam', and 'Bholaa Shankar'. 'Aadikeshava' joins their league as the fourth disaster.
