Akhil - Movie Review

What’s it about!
An orphan and not well-educated Akhil (Akhil) falls in love with a student Divya (Sayesha). To impress her, he tells that he is veterinary doctor and has studied in Cambridge. When he pretends to have performed ‘surgery’ to her pet rabbit, she develops a friendship with him. Her father, a mafia leader (Mahesh Manjrekar), arranges her marriage with a guy (Vennela Kishore) but he elopes with his lover after engagement with Divya with the help of Akhil. To take revenge on this guy, Divya moves to some foreign country and Akhil follows her. There she meets an African guy who gets killed by a gang which after the ‘jua’, a magical stone that is said to have the powers that prevents earth from warming. He reveals to her where he has hid that stone before closing his eyes. Now the gang is after Sayesha. How Akhil saves her from the gang forms the rest of the story.

Analysis

Akhil is Nagarjuna’s younger son Akhil Akkineni’s maiden movie. In any star son’s launch movie (we have seen many such movies in the recent past), the makers hardly put focus on storyline, instead the importance is given showcase the talents of the star son - mostly exhibiting his skills in dances and action stunts. This movie is no exception. What is different this time with this one is made with no creativity at all.

Director V V Vinayak has right away started the introduction scene of Akhil Akkineni with a fight in the backdrop of Charminar and then immediately the film breaks into a high energetic intro song in which Akhil dances superbly and also shows his abs.

Soon we get to see the introduction of heroine followed by love scenes and some more songs. While the first song sets the drift, the romantic numbers also show us that he is good at dances be it in solo acts or in duets. Then there are some more action scenes. If there is a template for a star son’s debut movie, Akhil follows the path with little spotlight on story and logic.

While the first goes on like this, post the interval the movie comes to some conflict point and talks more about ‘Jua’, the magical stone. Brahmandam also steps in to provide comedy. The second half has its own good moments but again it goes on predictable way and tires us with more inane scenes. And the climax is a huge letdown. The graphics in the penultimate sequences are substandard.

Story by Veligonda is silly and his scenes are so illogical. One wonders how could a graduate student who excels in education believe some not-so-intelligent boy when he says he is doctor and studied at Cambridge. Also how does a college principal and his family treat this orphan boy as their son for some ridiculous reason? The movie has galore of illogical scenes.

What works in the movie, as said above, are Akhil’s dances. He is absolutely marvelous at dance. Some of the steps he showed in the intro song are a treat to watch. Akhil has equally good screen presence. But his performance skills are not much to talk about. Since it is first movie, one can’t expect much from him on acting department.

Sayesha Saigal is cute and has done neat job. Brahmanandam, Vennela Kishore and Saptagiri have tried to generate some laughs but the comedy is very regular. Mahesh Manjrekar seems more like a joker than a mafia leader. Rajendra Prasad’s character is not developed well but he has carried it off with ease. The small cameo appearance by Nagarjuna in a song would be liked by fans.

The movie has good technical values with neat cinematography by Amol Rathod. Songs composed by Anup and Thaman serve the purpose of the movie to showcase the dancing skills of Akhil. “Padesave..Padesave...” is very catchy and the locations are equally eye-pleasing. Manisharma’s BG score is decent.

Dialogues by Kona Venkat are just average. The producers have put in huge money to make visually rich but graphics should have been better especially in the animal fight sequence. Director V V Vinayak has tried to present the movie to appeal to the hardcore fans of Akkineni and launch Akhil as hero, so he has not shown much of creativity here.

Bottom-line: Akhil showcases Akhil Akkineni's strengths well but the movie has weak output by Vinayak. For the fans of Akkineni family, the movie may seem okay. For others it doesn't work. Watch the movie for Akhil’s stunning dances only.