Guna 369 - Movie Review

Guna 369', directed by debutant Arjun Jandyala, stars Kartikeya in the lead.  The action-drama hit the theatres this Friday.  What does the film hold?  Let's find out. 

Story:

Guna (Kartikeya) comes from a middle-class family whose head (Naresh) dreams of a B. Tech for his son.  Mahesh Achanta ('Jabardasth' fame) is that loyal friend, while newcomer Anagha is Guna's love interest. 

Radha (Aditya Menon) is a dreaded goon in Ongole.  Those who disrespect him meet with a violent end.  When someone smashes Radha in a scuffle, Radha bays for his blood.  He escapes and seeks the help of Guna, who personally knows Radha.  Guna assures him that he will mediate and get peace between them. 

However, there is more than what meets the eye.  Guna gets the shock of his life when he gets mired in a murder case.  The second half is about how the hero traces what went wrong in his life and discovers who are the real villains? Does he have it in him to avenge? 

Analysis:

When you are dealing with a dark, serious subject, you have to throw away glitzy and glossy elements.  This is what 'Rx 100' director Ajay Bhupathi successfully did two years ago.  He conceived the scenes in the first half keeping in mind the fate of the hero's love story.  He could have written regular scenes infusing run of the mill comedy.  But he didn't do that.  He made the hero live in a pathetic state of mind, feeling the pain of lost love. 

The writer-director of 'Guna 369' should have drawn his lessons from that movie.  No, the story of this film has nothing to do with 'Rx 100'.  But, at one level, it's a grim story.  So, it needed to be told in a non-routine manner right from the first scene itself.

When you are dealing with themes like betrayal, savage sexual assault, primitive youngsters going on a rampage, timeless love, your scenes too should be appropriate.  You can't have the ending of a 'Gitanjali' while the first half is a 'Hello Brother'.  To give you a taste of what is in store, you have a fiercely violent climax and a stupidly gross rom-com track in 'Guna 369'.  In one scene, the hero goes to the extent of gifting a bra to the heroine on her birthday.  Reason?  She asked him to give her a heart-touching gift.  So, our legendary hero gives her a breast-hugging bra!  Gosh!

Having witnessed such horrible tracks in the first half, the audience doesn't buy into the film by the time it reaches the interval.  The serious tracks in the second half don't invite the audience to shed a tear.  The climax should have moved the audience.  But it doesn't do that because you don't feel for a hero who behaves like a comical lover boy otherwise. 

Aditya Menon's scenes are so artificial that everybody is there for the sole purpose of inviting his wrath.  The climax is strictly not for children.  

The director shows conviction in telling an intense climax.  But till before the climax, everything looks quite half-hearted and half-baked.  Kartikeya delivers a crafted performance.  He is made to shout louder than the loudest Boyapati Srinu hero!  The BGM (by music director Chaitan Bharadwaj) doesn't help either, as it gets louder than the hero. 

Jungle justice is romantized by the film.  When you are telling such themes, the film has to end on a gloomy note.  Here, that doesn't happen. 

What made the director cast Hema as the hero's mother?  She is a total misfit.  The villains in the second half get to speak cinematic, old-fashioned lines.  Shivaji Raja, Manju Bhargavi and others get to play underwritten roles. 

Chaitan Bharadwaj's songs are intrusive.  Ram Reddy's cinematography doesn't add any value.

Bottom line: The film has a viable story on the paper. But in terms of execution, it surrenders to regular standards. The strength of the climax is visible, but everything else about the film leaves much desirable.