Badrinath

Poor acting and nonsensical plots kill an interesting idea.

The trailers of Badrinath clubbed with the star cast boasting of names such as Allu Arjun, Tamanna and Prakash Raj raises the expectations from the film sky-high. Unfortunately, the film fails to carry the expectations.

Badri (Allu Arjun) is trained by a warrior-saint Bhishma Narayan (Prakash Raj) to protect the temple Badrinath in Takshashila. All goes well till the charming young girl Alakananda (Tamanna) walks into the temple along with her grandfather. Her grandfather wants to save Alakananda from her Aunt (Aswini Kalsekar) who wants Alakananda to be married to her son. Alakananda had insulted her Aunt sometime for calling herself the wife of a Bellary-based factionist. Badri goes on to save Alakananda and at the same time Alakananda falls in love with Badri. Meanwhile, Bhishma Narayan wants Badri to succeed him but for that, he will have to remain a bachelor. Rest is how Badri and Alakananda unite.

The film stands on a weak story and adding further, the screenplay simply drags on and on. A few flaws to be noted in the screenplay, the way Alakananda falls in love with Badri is not at all convincing, the whole sequence of the fight with the naxalites was unnecessary, the end is too formulaic. First of all, what is this way of taking revenge? Marrying son to the person who insults her! It appears funny. Also, the songs pop-up without any situation favoring them. They try hard to remain on your lips on your way home but fail. The only fair composition are Nath Nath and Nacchavura. The dance by Allu Arjun is thoroughly enjoyable in the first-half but gets monotonous in the latter.

The production design is class. Cinematography is first-rate. The sets and locations are wonderful. Costumes are well designed. Choreography explores the dancing abilities of All Arjun to the fullest. Background score is superb. Sound design is top- notch. Also, the movie has a novel idea, obviously gone waste in an enterprise like this - a well composed English song (In the night) has been used in a Telugu film, probably the first film of its kind.

Coming to the performances. Allu Arjun holds a straight face throughout. Needs to improve. Fights are good and so is dancing but fails in acting. Tamanna has improved but still goes over the top at times. Prakash Raj gets limited scope but the make-up is good. Aswini Kalsekar is perfect. Post Johnny Gaddar, Phoonk, All the Best and Rakta Charitra, this is one film which will remain as a gem in her career. The actors who portray her husband and son are fair. The comedians are wasted, all of them. Only the one who accompanies Tamanna and her grandfather gets some scope. Rest are wasted. Grandfather is good.

On the whole, the film is likely to do good in the initial weeks, but business after that seems tough. Spend a few bucks for the wonderful cinematography, background music, locales and fights. Else, avoid it.

Quiz: How many bad guys can Badri (Allu Arjun) single-handedly kill or maim at the Bellary Railway Station with just a sword and without suffering so much as a scratch in the new Telugu film Badrinath?

a) 0 b) 2 c) 4 d) Several Dozen

If you answered from a-c, you'd be grossly wrong but still get credit for retaining a vestige of sanity. Since it's a Telugu film after all, the correct answer must perforce be d.

Folks, with each new movie, Telugu film star Allu Arjun's acting gets worse and the plots of his films get further bizarre.

In his latest film Badrinath which premiered in the U.S. Thursday night, Allu Arjun not only, yet again, grossly overacts a la Sivaji Ganesan from an earlier era but the storyline is straight from the loony-bin.

Set in the Hindu holy city of Badrinath in North India, the movie is a mindless Telugu paean to senseless violence (Allu Arjun), asinine romance (Tamanna) and juvenile humor (Brahmanandam).

Trashy as most Telugu films are, one can, if one searches long and hard, spot some redeeming element in the form of acting, music, settings, photography or, if nothing else, seek solace in the scantily-dressed voluptuous heroine.

But Badrinath's claim to fame is that it comes to the screen shorn of any semblance of artistic merit or any whiff of redeeming elements save that a bunch of wannabe filmmakers had money to burn.

And proceeded to toss Rs 41-crore into the fire if media reports are accurate.

Allu Arjun, rippling muscles, 8-pack physique and all, plays Badri, the favorite young disciple of a saintly, white-bearded old figure Bhishma Narayan (Prakash Raj) in Badrinath. Serpent in Eden oops Badrinath

Given to flashing his sword and performing endless leaps on the high peaks, the young disciple's idyllic life in the serene heights of the temple town is disturbed with the entry of a serpent in the form of the fair-skinned Alakananda (Tamannah Bhatia) accompanied by her Tatayya (grandfather), who's coughing up blood (you're never sick in an Indian movie unless there's an effusion of blood).

Oh yeah, the girl hates all mention of God and is given to sacrilegious actions, one of which nullifidian act has our valorous, devout hero angrily flinging her into a fast-moving Himalayan river from high above.

Alas, to our great distress Badri's Guru orders him to save her, which he dutifully proceeds to do so and in the process shaves us of any peace for the next two hours!

But Cupid will always worm his way in or at least Badrinath director V.V.Vinayak (also responsible for the screenplay) will.

Soon, the devout young lad is distracted with the skimpily-clad girl who sports a mouth perennially agape as if longing for a hard-object, a pout at home in a nut-house, a brain smaller than a pea and simian antics characteristic of diapered children.

One such "Rajinikanth" antic has an elephant charging after her and only the timely intervention of her savior Badri prevents the pachyderm from planting its large feet squarely on her lissome midriff.

Bare-chested Badri is soon lovey-doveying with bare-midriffed Alakananda on the mountain top even as her evil relatives in the sultry Andhra plains, who seem to be on an overdose of crack-cocaine, plot nefarious schemes that will soon reach the mountains and separate the love-birds.

Allu Arjun's character Badri has a weird tendency to suddenly break into moon-dances a la Michael Jackson in the company of a large troupe, a hint that his Valium dose needs to be increased if we're to calm him down.

By the way, Tamannah Bhatia sets a new record in Badrinath, albeit a dubious one, for being the first Indian heroine to go through an entire movie without covering her midriff and belly-button and lavishly displaying her wares, small as they are, in a desperate effort at inducing lecherous eyes, drooling mouths and priapic organs. We'd say she failed in all three.

Did we tell you, her character goes to a funeral dressed as if to a late evening party! Seriously, do they do that in Andhra Pradesham?

Neither the music nor their picturization were in any measure adequate to lift us out of our misery at the distressing spectacle. The Nath Nath shrieks in the second half that pretends to be a song had us gasping for breath.

As if all of the aforesaid were not torture enough, we were subjected to more grief from that infernal sine qua non of Telugu films Brahmanandam, who plays a crook masquerading as a 2,000-year-old swami.

Plus: 1. Allu Arjun dance and fights 2. Production values 3. Background score

Minus: 1. Story 2. Screenplay 3. Climax

Verdict: V.V. Vinayak is a good mass director. His films are usually entertaining even though it has nothing new to offer. If Badrinath was written by him it would have been a decent entertainer.

Allu arjun,Tammanah and allu aravind and it is a great story too but not that good direction! It could have improved much more and allu arjun have given his best work and super dance!