Movie: Auto Nagar Surya
Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: R R Movie Makers
Cast: Naga Chaitanya, Samantha, Sai Kumar, Jayaprakash Reddy, Bramhanandam, Venu Medhav, Ajay and Others
Music: Anup Rubens
Editor: Gowtham Raju
Cinematographer: Srikanth Saroj
Producer: Atchi Reddy
Story, Screenplay, Dialogues and Direction: Deva Katta
Release Date: 27th June, 2014
When one looks at the posters of Naga Chaitanya and Samantha, one instantly thinks of a romantic, feel-good film. In short, a youthful entertainer which promises lots of fun and has loads of songs.
Instead, Naga Chaitanya tries his hand at action genre yet again with Auto Nagar Surya.
In the past, he did Josh and Bezawada both of which failed at the box office. But his infatuation with action genre seems to be strong and he makes yet another brave attempt.
However, ever since Auto Nagar Surya went on the floors, it faced various problems, both in terms of production delays and later in terms of financial troubles for the makers.
So, the film’s release date has been postponed inadvertently and just when everyone gave up on the film, the producers managed to release it. Of course, they felt the success of Naga Chaitanya-starrer Manam would rub off on the film as it has been in the making for a very long time.
Let’s check how this latest directorial venture of Dev Katta who showed much promise with Vennela and Prasthanam has shaped up.
Story:
As the title suggests, it’s the story of mechanic Surya (Naga Chaitanya), an orphan who grows up in Auto Nagar. When a rowdy sheeter kills his friend for no apparent reason, Surya kills him and goes to jail as a teenager. Once out of jail, Surya decides to go about life like a law-abiding citizen. But due to the deeply entrenched rowdy system, he constantly ends up meeting anti-social elements. The film tries to show how Surya deals with the problem head-on and how he finally makes sure that he lives the life he wanted to.
Artistes’ Performance:
The film showcases the hitherto unseen side of Naga Chaitanya as an actor. He too tries his best to fit into the action-oriented role. While his effort and hard work is quite obvious, one cannot help feeling that he is rather young to play such a serious role. Well, one could blame this on the success of Manam, where he was seen in a more youthful and playful role, which kind of suited him better than the serious role he gets to play in Auto Nagar Surya. Also, it is quite obvious that he is playing the part. Of course, that is not to undermine his sincerity, but he fumbles with dialogue delivery and looks like he needs a couple of years before he can take up such serious subjects with more confidence. On the plus side though, his scenes with Samantha clearly show that he is ideal to play the romantic lead.
Coming to Samantha, she has a brief role which is almost non-existent in the second half. But she manages to pull off her part rather convincingly. Of course, she looks pretty as usual.
As for the rest of the cast, the role that is usually played by Kota or Prakash Raj has been given to Sai Kumar and he does a good job.
Madhu of Ruturagaulu fame is a good find as the villain. Jayaprakash Reddy, Ajay and Jeeva are seen in their usual roles.
Nandu who played hero’s friend gets to play a short, but key role in the film as the entire story revolves around his character.
On the whole, all actors put in commendable performances. But Brahmanandam and Venu Madhav’s track ends up being a lame effort in making the audience laugh in an otherwise serious plot.
Technical Expertise:
Music is by Anup Rubens who is a rage after his hit tracks in three consecutive hits like Manam, Gundejaari Gallantayyinde and Ishq. But Auto Nagar Surya’s music is nothing much to write about. It’s just about average barring the song Manchali and the same can be said about background score.
On the other hand, cinematography is good and is reminiscent of the 1990s. Both the cinematographer and art director have taken special care to recreate the mood of the ’90s and succeed.
Director Dev Katta shows glimpse of his talent at places, but fails to match up to the bar he set for himself by making Prasthanam. Incidentally, dialogues have been penned by him too. At the outset, it has to be acknowledged that he did come up with some interesting dialogues about life and its philosophy. But a few dialogues are very lengthy and test the intelligence of the average movie-goer. Of course, they will be surely appreciated by people who like literature and understand the finer nuances of Telugu language, but the ordinary cinema-goers might get intimidated by them. Instead, Dev Katta could have opted for a more easy-going, natural style of narration which would have also made the viewing more effortless.
Highlights:
- Dialogues
- The 15 minutes before the interval
Drawbacks:
- Narration
- Second half
Analysis:
One of the main drawbacks of the film is the period in which it is set in. As the plot tries to dissect and revisit the rowdy culture of the ’90s, it does not match up to the sense and sensibilities of the audiences these days. And having chosen an outdated theme for his film, Dev Katta tries his best to recreate the feel and mood for his story.
Another flaw is the randomness in the way the story progresses. Most of the scenes are not inter-linked and the screenplay is rather jerky. To add to this, Dev Katta tried to insert a comedy track that does more harm than good to the movie.
Though the main plot emerges during the second half, here, the director loses track totally. The scenes showing the growth of Surya into a force that fights rowdy sheeters are quite tame. Similarly, the scenes between the rowdies and the hero also fail to impress the audience as they fail to capture the tension.
The director disappoints even during the climax scenes as the film ends on a rather predictable note. In the first half scenes between Surya and Samantha and one scene in the Union meeting, no other bit remains with you after you leave the theatre.
In all, Dev Katta would have been better off if he dealt with a contemporary subject than going into the past.
Bottomline: Wasted effort
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
