Mister - Movie Review

What's it about?

Chai (Varun Tej), who is living in France, goes to receive a girl at airport. He welcomes Meera (Hebbah) thinking she is one he has to receive. Despite this confusion, they hit off well and she stays at their home. As he is about to propose her she tells him that she loves Siddharth (Prince) in India. Heartbroken Chai sends off her to India. A week later, she calls him that she is in trouble as Siddharth is going to marry another girl. Chai decides to settle their matter and lands in India. While he is heading to her village, he gets introduced to Chandramukhi (Lavanya) who is running away from a gang. By end of the interval, three gangs are after Meera and Chandramukhi for various reasons. Circumstances lead to both Chai and Chandramukhi getting engaged. What happens then? 

Analysis:

Director Sreenu Vaitla has unique style of narrating masala entertainers but his last two movies 'Aagadu' and 'Bruce Lee' bombed at the box-office. His films have become quite monotonous. To offer something new, he made 'Mister', a supposedly love story. On the surface it is romantic drama but the narration goes on predictable path with full of Vaitla's trademark elements. That means, he has served the same badly cooked meals though the garnish suggests something else. 

Set in a beautiful European city, 'Mister' begins pretty decently. Couple of duets (Ededo Bagunde is a lilting number), a spoof (Raghu Babu as wheel-chair bound Nagarjuna in 'Oopiri') and pleasant locations have made the first 40 minutes an enjoyable experience. The moment Hebbah leaves for India, the drama shifts into another gear and the ride from there is bumpy. 

The promise that it is a travelogue kind of romantic drama in the beginning goes topsy-turvy as it progresses into the second half. Illogical sequences keep coming in, many goons and gangs chase the hero and heroines adding raucousness and hero lands in a village that is still (as we made to believe) stuck in Srikrishna Devaraya period. Second half is not only a mess but also like a never-ending drama.  

Murali Sharma, a descent of Sri Krishna Devaraya living like a King in present India and giving punishments like sirachedana (beheading of head) is hard to believe. And this so-called royal person suddenly believes when someone tells him that Varun has rudrksha-shaped mole on his body and makes him his alludu. How illogical is this? This drama gets major runtime in the second half. 

As the story has already gone helter-skelter post-interval, the director adds some more silly twists like Hebbah suddenly changing her heart (she starts loving Varun now), and Varun and his grandfather getting united. All these add more cacophony to this already overtly cooked up drama.

Vaitla has this habit of making spoofs on actors and directors though they gel into the story or not. In this film too, he has made spoofs on 'Oopiri' and mentioned about 'Srimanthudu'. He has also created a character of movie director in the film but this track of movie director and writer makes no sense at all. 

The second half and the final sequences have completely turned the movie into a boring fest. 

On the performances front, Varun Tej impresses, as he is good as NRI. Of the heroines, Lavanya is good but her outfits have made her look a bit older than her age. Hebbah Patel is just okay. All the villains in the film have one-dimensional characterizations. Raghu Babu and Srinivas Reddy have done neat job. Prudhvi is totally wasted. 

The highlight of the movie is terrific cinematography by K V Guhan. The movie has best visuals and locations. The production values are also top class. Music is downer except for one song. Editing and screenplay are mess. Dialogues are okay. Although Gopi Mohan's script and basic line makes sense on the paper, its treatment has gone haywire. Director Sreenu Vaitla has lost his grip on the narration post-interval. 

Bottom-line: 'Mister' begins on decent note but turns into messy affair from the pre-interval episodes. Second half has full of illogical sequences and uninteresting scenes. Except for the first few minutes and top class visual, the movie is a total bore.