Movie: Ism
Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: NTR Arts
Cast: Kalyan Ram, Aditi Arya, Jagapathi Babu, Gollapudi Maruthi Rao, Tanikella Bharani, Posani Krishna Murali, Vennela Kishore, Jayaprakash Reddy, Ali and others.
Music: Anup Rubens
Cinematography: Mukesh
Editing: Junaid
Action: Venkat
Producer: Nandamuri Kalyan Ram
Story, screenplay, dialogues and Direction: Puri Jagannadh
Release date: October 21, 2016
Puri Jagannadh, one of the leading directors of Tollywood, teaming up with Kalyan Ram raised eyebrows. Although Puri is going through lean phase, the teaser of “Ism” raised expectations and it gave impression that he has come back in form.
Has he really made an interesting movie like the teaser promised, lets find out?
Story:
In a far off island, India’s most-wanted don Javed Ibrahim (Jagapathi Babu) runs a bank and lives with his daughter Alia Khan (Aditi Arya). Sultan (Kalyan Ram), a fighter, teases Alia Khan to love him but she doesn’t accept.
One day he meets Javed Ibrahim and befriends him. He tells Javed that he is loving a rich person’s daughter but she is not accepting his love and asks him some idea. Javed gives an idea that works.
Only later he realizes that Sultan actually took the idea to propose to his daughter. Not only that he comes to know that Sultan came to this Island to catch him and he is not a fighter but a journalist. Rest of the drama is about unraveling Sultan’s true identity.
Artistes’ Performances:
Kalyan Ram has completely transformed as an actor. Look wise, his six-pack body language and his performance, there is a clear difference.
Aditi Arya lacks appeal, bad choice for heroine’s role. Jagapathi Babu sleepwalks in the role, his role is also very weak despite he is being a dreaded don.
Tanikella Bharani, Gollapudi, Eeshwari Rao and Posani have made an impression with their competent acting. Ali’s comedy and Vennela Kishore’s presence don’t evoke any laughs.
Technical Excellence:
Music by Anup is average. Cinematography and action choreography is topclass. The dialogues by Puri Jagannadh are average. Editing is crisp and production values are superb.
Highlights:
Court Scene
Kalyan Ram’s makeover
Production values
Drawback:
Routine screenplay
Trashy first half
Lack of entertainment
Illogical scenes
Boring romantic scenes
Analysis:
By now, people have stopped expecting a classic like 'Pokiri' from Puri Jagannadh after watching so many bad movies from him but all agree that he is still capable of presenting a decent movie like 'Temper'. Hence expectations were built on “Ism” but he disappoints again with this film.
He told “Ism” in more formulaic way, a way that he has created his own. From the days of “Pokiri”, he is narrating stories of hero going after heroine and pressurizing her to love him and then from interval episode moving on to the story part. This has become a Puri style. “Ism” too follows similar way.
But in this film, the romantic track shot on Kalyan Ram and Aditi Arya is not at all appealing. The scenes, the songs, the dialogues and the heroine... all are bad in the romantic episode.
Post interval, the story turns into a serious mode and he reveals the main theme of the movie – a journalist creating a group of hackers to expose all the crimes purported by politicians. This part he has handled very well.
The court scene where Kalyan Ram pours out his heart and asks all the hackers in India to send out the black money from Paradise bank to the accounts of crores of people in India is the best one.
Puri has shown an international mafia don like Javed Ibrahim more like a bafoon. He is seen interacting with a match-maker in a comic way, and meeting Kalyan Ram casually and giving him silly ideas. Not only that in the end Javed Ibrahim turns into a good guy. Puri Jagannadh has made an International Don a noble person!
The concept is actually interesting one but he has failed to tell it interestingly. This kind of concept of hacking the banks and transferring the black money to the accounts of ordinary Indians needs a screenplay that we see in Shankar movies. The concept went awry due to routine screenplay.
This is the first time that Telugu film industry touched upon Wiki-Leaks kind of journalism. All in all, despite patriotic scenes, noble cause of journalism, the movie doesn’t hold interest due to bad packaging. Kalyan Ram and court scene in the end are good part of the movie.
Bottom-line: Puri-Ism!
