Bottom Line: OOpiri – A fun Adaptation of “The Intouchables”
Story
Seenu (Karthi) is an unemployed
ex con who goes to the Aditya Mansionof a quadriplegic man to get proof
that no one would hire him. ButVikram Aditya (Nagarjuna) hires him
inspite of Seenu seriously wantingto find work. They have many
differences. But wouldn’t you know it, itturns out that Seenu is
precisely the kind of caretaker Vikram needsto loosen up and live his
life again – and Vikram is precisely theemployer Seenu needs to show him
some responsibility so that Seenucan become a productive member of
society. At first, Seenu seemshopeless, he doesn’t take the job
seriously, and he spends more timeogling Vikram’s beautiful assistant
Keerthi (Tamannah) than he doescaring for him. Vikram with his no non
sense approach, his widefriendly smile, make everyone fit in. And while
Seenu at first seesVikram as a stick in the mud – an upper class, out of
touchhandicapped man gradually, he starts to see the real person
underneath– the person who needs help.
Star Performance
Performances are the key here.
Akkineni Nagarjuna fits in well withhis intense and laden persona. As a
quadriplegic person and keepingunsmiling expression throughout that
suits his character perfectly.Karthi is really great and it’s good to
see that he is supportingventures like these on a personal level
following the right path.Tamannah’s photogenic looks are captured quite
lovingly so it’s not somuch a chore watching her glide through the
motions of falling in lovewith a massy guy. Prakash Raj looked fine in
role and performs welltoo in his few scenes and so does Jayasudha as
Karthi’s mother. Ali,Tanikella Bharini, Late. Kalpana, Nicole, Shreya
Saran, Adivi Sesh andAnushka Shetty all play their cameo kind of short
roles effectively.
Techinical Team
An official remake of the
high-on-emotions French entertainer “TheIntouchables” featuring Omar Sy
and Francois Cluzet, this desi take byVamsi Paidipally is a little more
on the showy romantic side to bedeemed an emotional fun ride. Also
there’s very little tension in theoverwhelming display of brawn and
beauty so the overall enjoyment isentirely limiting.The fun element is
strong enough in the first half, but the emotionalspectacle is not.
Riding the touristy wave across the most recommendedholiday destination
Paris, can only net you what is equivalent to acinematic rendition of
city of love. The storyline lacks strengthmainly because after creating a
few routine set piece love tracks, itgets bogged down in unviable
vacuities. We have seen this kind ofstory before. Easy comparisons might
be “Bucket List” or “Driving MissDaisy” but truthfully, this movie
closely resembles the 1995 comedy“Houseguest”, but with an invalid not a
wimpy father. Seriously thereare eerily familiar subplots in both of
these movies.
The movie (based on a true story) comes
perilously close to fallinginto the uneasy trap of
massy-guy-saves-persons-prospective cinema,but it pulls itself back from
that brink by focusing on dynamic of twomen. The success of the story
is that neither one of them treats theother as inferior or superior,
just different. And from that they botheventually appreciate the
differences between the two and what theycan each gain. The opening
scene between the lead actors through thestreets of Hyderabad only to
fool the police by saying Nagarjuna ishaving stroke and needs a hospital
is as much Nag’s high stake prankas it is Karthi’s. Neither man
considers the others problemsinsignificant, nor do they ever treat them
insurmountable. This VamsiPaidipally directed adaptation copy, is almost
a frame-to-frameregurgitation of the original. While the exposition
takes up most ofthe runtime, not enough is done to shore up either the
set up or thefinal revelation. As a result it comes out a little too pat
to be justifiable.
Hence following the same pattern,
the solid usp of Oopiri is itssoundtrack with few fine compositions and
lyrics. out of all only“Sithakoka Chiluka” sadly comes in the film just
at the wrong moment.The cinematography of the film is major asset the
way scenes are shotin songs and race sequences are fun. Editor could
have worked a bit onthe second half of the film. The shoddy editing from
the Paris tourdilutes the film’s impact. Production values of “PVP
Cinema” are fine.
Analysis
Telugu cinema has always been a
difficult terrain for remakes as thestory lines structured for audiences
elsewhere, often found itdifficult to gel with the tastes of our Telugu
audiences. Even thoughthat is the case, the recent years witnessed a
lot of remakes inTelugu, with very few of them making an impression
among thespectators. “Oopiri” is the latest one to add to the list, and
thisbeing the first of the adaptation made by the director
VamsiPaidipally. So in all, Oopiri has a fine direction, good
performancesand some well executed sequences too. But with nothing new
to revealor surprise in its content for me its content, for me it just
remainsa good one time watch and not anything more than that as
beingprojected.
What Is Good
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