An Open Letter to Rajamouli. Review on Vikramarkudu Movie

Dear Rajamouli, This is the first time in my life that I am writing an open letter. In fact I believe that such open letters do not serve any purpose at all – other than just being a channel to vent out the bottled up feelings. Boss, I have seen most of your movies and liked quite a few of them. My favorite is Simhadri with Sye being the second best. I loved the way you handled the Rugby part of Sye. And of course the energetic pace of Simhadri. So when a black marketer offered me a forty rupees ticket of Vikramarkudu yesterday in Nellore – Kaveri theatre for fifty rupees I thought I was a lucky man. After all I was about to experience the frenzied screenplay of Rajamouli coupled with a double dose of Ravi Teja’s infinite energy. I have a confession to make here my friend, and I believe you too have a confession waiting to be made – that you botched up the original script of Vikramarkudu and had to be content with a slightly modified version of that Simhadri script which was gathering dust on the almarah in your storeroom. If I may ask, why did you have to remake that movie? Agreed it was a successful venture. Agreed people went ga ga over it in Andhra Pradesh the same way Keralites worshipped Singamalai. So you thought that replacing Kerala with Chambal and Singamalai with Vikram Rathod will make this a brand new script? No you didn’t think so. You knew it would be the same story. So you made an all important change – Singamalai and Simhadri are two different human beings now. What more? They are Siamese twins born to different mothers. That brings us to the twist in the tale sir! That they are two different persons is not relevant to the story – understandable because the original story did not have two people. So the screenplay is not concerned about the contrived two men theory. It focuses only one man at a time. And barring a five minute episode just before the interval – they can as well be one man – with two personalities – Singamalai and Simhadri. The second half, in a vain attempt to be faithful to the original script, sends one of the unrelated twins packing to Vaitarini river. The living one now goes to Chambal and packs the villains off to probably Kumbhipaka narakam. If there is an award for the most uninspiring and insipid remake that tries hard to be an original story – Vikramarkudu will win it hands down. Rajamouli man, you rock dude. Hats off to your view that you can serve the old wine in a pretty old but newly labeled bottle. Alright. Agreed that new stories are hard to come by. Agreed you had to depend on the execution rather than an original concept. So why is the execution so faulty? It is time you fired your editor. I don’t know who edited this movie but I am willing to put my money on your neighborhood’s fourth grade chatter box for I believe this can’t be the work of a professional editor. My friend tells me that there is something seriously wrong with Kaveri theatre management and that it may not really be the fault of the editor of the movie. Let me buy that for the time being and be satisfied that the totally disjointed and disconnected marathon of scenes in the second half has something to do with at least one reel missing in the projector room. Please tell me this is true. Please tell me that between the godown loot scene and the Chambal Panchayat there are some scenes which Kaveri theatre management or the projector operator did not like. There once was a man – revered by one and all as a very talented person. He still is I believe and I sincerely think this is probably an exception. But Rajamouli sir, how come you managed to extract such a pathetic music score from none other M M Keeravani? Anyway sir, I don’t want to talk about the movie anymore because I simply can’t. So who is the loser? Undoubtedly, apart from those who bought the tickets, it has to be Ravi Teja. The man did his best and was the only reason why the hall didn’t get empty half way through. Anushka was pretty and showed her Yoga skills in every dance movement. Brahmanandam is getting repetitive these days. If there is one person (other than Ravi Teja) who steals the show in this movie, it is the girl who essays the role of Vikram Rathod’s daughter. For starters, she looks and behaves like a Telugu kid. And she is very cute. Finally, please thank Ravi Teja on my behalf. He saved my day yesterday. If not for him, I would have probably gone mad by the time the S S Rajamouli mark was seen on the last frame of the movie. Thank you Ravi and thank you Jinthata.