'Mechanic Rocky' hit the cinemas today (November 22). In this section, we are going to review the latest box office release.
Plot:
Rocky (Vishwak Sen) is in serious trouble when his father's hard-earned garage property is litigated by a local goonda named Ranki Reddy (Sunil). Maya (Shraddha Srinath), an insurance executive who is his customer, decides to help him out in securing a lump-sum so that he gets to bail himself out. Just as we start thinking that the story is directionless, a twist makes us question our assumptions. What are the assumptions? What is the one twist that alters the course of the story? That's what the second half is about.
Post-Mortem:
In one of the scenes between Rocky and Maya, the latter wonders if Rocky's father fathered a child from an illicit affair with a woman. Anyone in their right mind would express this doubt only if the first, basic doubt has been ruled out: Was there a typo in the insurance document? A typo is more likely to have occurred than Rocky's father having an illicit affair. The tricky thing about 'Mechanic Rocky' is that this scene doesn't appear stupid after a twist is revealed. Rather, the illicit affair doubt was meant to generate silly laughs in the cinema hall. Silly humor is something this film obsesses with as much as it obsesses with its central crime plot.
The film would have packed a punch had the brand of comedy been intelligent and thoughtful rather than silly and spoofy. There is a spoofy flashback, which gets linked to a key character later on in the story. While this linking is fun to watch, in the hands of a classy filmmaker like a Karthik Subbaraj or a Nelson Dhilipkumar, this story would have acquired remarkable finesse.
There is a little bit of investigation track in the film. It is half-intelligent and half-dumb, much like the film itself. A police officer knows the email ID of his target but thinks tracing that person is impossible. It takes our hero to educate him that tracing can be done by way of trapping the culprit. Well, tracing and trapping are synonyms for police officers in a lot of contexts - it is basic knowlege for them. Why would they need a mechanic to school them about how to do their job?
In a scene involving 'Roadies' Raghu Ram's character, Rocky and a cameo, momentary tension is built. A few scenes later, the behaviour of a crucial character in this scene doesn't make any sense. Had such flaws been taken care of, 'Mechanic Rocky' would have been tighter.
At first, this film looks as outrageously ridiculous as Vishwak Sen's 'Pagal'. Thankfully, this is not a 'pagal' film and actually deserves a chance. The second half ends our frustration with the first half to a great extent. Vishwak's performance is above average.
Shraddha Srinath outclasses herself. Meenakshi Chaudhary's college portions with the male lead are poorly staged. Her track with Rocky is distracting and their chemistry has little to offer. Jakes Bejoy's background score is better than the songs.
Closing Remarks:
'Mechanic Rocky' would have attained its highest potential in the hands of a better filmmaker. It is just an average one for now.
