The last time I wrote anything about a movie here was way back on the 22nd of September, 2015, which is approximately two years ago. I loved writing a few words on the biopic(Pawn Sacrifice) of one of the greatest chess talents the world has ever seen. If there is anything at all that has driven me to get back to writing a review on a movie in MS, it must be Arjun Reddy.
When I first heard the movie's name, I thought this, too, was a biopic of some popular person in some field of life that I was not aware of whatsoever. I had learned that this was a fictionalized story by the time the movie had made its rave rounds amidst the moviegoers. As a movie lover, I wondered what was the hype all about and gave it an attempt at watching it. I totally fell in love with the movie in its significant parts just as much as I feel in love with it as the sum of its elements.
While watching the movie a few weeks back for the first time, I thought it had a good opening with an incredible pacing as it progressed frame by frame. Having no awareness of the genre of the movie as well as not being aware of any of the cast or crew members in the movie, I had relished having lived through it with thrill, suspense, and a range of emotions.
Quite surprisingly, when I watched it again today, having known the story, I was just as equally joyed to experience the details that I had already lived through minus the suspense as to how and where the plot would culminate.
Amidst brilliant cinematic presentation, fabulous script, outlandish screenplay, excellent performances, touchy music(both BGM as well as in songs), and decent cinematography, it's tough to singularize just one great act here. While the various aspects of the movie are mostly in place, the sum of the parts probably stood out.
I fell in love with the way the writer has sketched the protagonist's life through the lifespan of this movie. While I'm not a fan of naming any movie based on the name of the lead actor, I thought the title of this movie was fairly justified given how powerful the characterization of the lead role is in this movie.
Arjun Reddy's attitude is simply kick ass! He is suave, crazy, educated, rich, and dynamic. His only trace of weakness is his uncontrollable anger. I love the way the character is sketched and played around throughout the movie well keeping in mind the tenets of such a personality. Arjun Reddy's love interest is one of the most lovable, endearing, and innocent characters I've seen on frame in quite some time now. The family members and friends of Arjun Reddy, particularly his grandmother, brother, father, and a couple of his friends, are just as aptly sketched within the framework of the movie's narrative.
Alongside the lead's attitude and the innocent charm of the female lead, the detailing of bonds of friendships, the highlights of familial values on display, the lead's admirable integrity and passion toward his career, and his bizarre addiction to love, cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs canopies the movie to its distinct spot.
I felt that for a Telugu movie, this was quite boldly shot. Be it the passionate kisses being exchanged between the leads or the way the lead pees in his pants after being high on morphine and alcohol or how he opens up to sex with some women with his weird ways was shot like no other mainstream Telugu movie I've seen in my life.
Innumerable scenes pop up my mind as I write this review. The scene where the lead gives it back in fist fights to one of the antagonists in the movie during an intercollegiate football match, the scene where he uses ice cubes to cool off his lust after being denied sex by a woman, and the scene where he asks a popular actress, who is one of his patients, to help him out physically to escape his ways to forget his estranged love rush through my mind just as much as those numerous conversations he has with his friends, family members, and his dog preoccupy my mind. However, the movie's memorable scenes are those in which the lead gets intensely emotional and instinctively reactionary to the life's swings in his love life. I also loved the scene where, as a mark of integrity, Arjun confesses to a court of law to being drunk beyond acceptable measure while in the operation theater to eventually pave way to his doctor's license being suspended for years due to medical negligence. All of this when there is a clear scheme by his family members, friends, and a skilled lawyer to exonerate him. As a special mention, I thoroughly enjoyed the way this scene was incorporated in the movie: The scene in which Arjun refuses to copulate with the actress Jia Sharma when the latter confesses her love for him.
Some of the lines in the movie stood out just as much. One of Arjun's friends, Kamal, who seem to have no trouble in marrying the girl he loved, quite unlike Arjun, at least in that phase of the movie, remarks at Arjun that the latter's is a benchmark love story, while his is an ordinary one. He delivers those line both with a tinge of sarcasm as well as with an element of mystery and ignorance. Arjun's granny states that when a woman is in love, her priorities change, and this is one line I thought I, too, could have effortlessly written if I was given the context of the movie. Another line from his granny is a killer one in the context of the movie: Suffering is personal, Gautham. Let him(Arjun Reddy) suffer! Yet another gem that I can right now recall is when Arjun states during a law trail that the only thing that he can consider as his is his career and requests everybody else to not corrupt his profession, for which he has the highest regard.
While watching the movie, I felt a couple of scenes could have been done better. When Arjun is flying a kite with a cigarette in his hand and gets to hear of his girl being married to someone, he drops both the thread controlling the kite as well as the cigarette in his hand and rushes to see her. I would have loved to see him in a range of emotions and cut off the thread attached to the kite by the lit cigarette. There is another scene in which Arjun slaps his love interest before giving her a warning that she has just six hours to decide if she ever wants to stay with him forever. All I saw in this superbly shot sequence is that the girl was only trying to console him to stay normal before making drastic moves about their relationship. I felt this slap was redundant despite considering the anger issues Arjun has to deal with and the framework of his personality and the situation that led him to slap her.
I would like to end my review with one of the freakiest romantic lines I've heard in this, or any movie, till date.
Preethi: What is it that you like in me?
Arjun Reddy: I like the way you breathe.
(God knows what that exactly means. I loved the overall movie in all its elements nevertheless!)
