Movie: NOTA
Rating: 2/5
Banner: Studio Green
Cast: Vijay Devarakonda, Mehreen Pirzada, Nassar, Sathyaraj, Yashika Aannand, Anastasia Maslova , Sanchana Natarajan, Priyadarshi and others
Music: Sam C.S.
Cinematography: Santhana Krishnan Ravichandran
Editing: Raymond Derrick Crasta
Producer: K.E. Gnanavel Raja
Written and directed by: Anand Shankar
Release date: October 5, 2018
Vijay Deverakonda who has attained immense craze in no time has yet another release this year.
“NOTA”, the latest movie from him, is a bilingual made in Tamil and Telugu by Tamil film-maker Anand Shankar.
Let’s find out if Vijay D mesmerizes with his unique choice of movies once again...
Story:
Varun (Vijay Deverakonda) is son of Vasudev (Nasser), chief minister of the state. The youngster is a jolly person and parties and is clueless about politics. Vasudev steps down as CM as an enquiry is ordered due to corruption charges.
He asks his son Varun to be “dummy CM” for a few days. But as things turn out, Varun ends up being a CM for a long time.
What changes does this 'Rowdy' CM bring forms the crux of the story.
Artistes’ Performances:
Vijay Deverakonda in the role of a young politician is spot-on. He once again excels in the role and is the main pillar to this thriller. Sathya Raj is good. Nasser as the CM is effective.
Heroine Mehreen lacks any substance, she is more like a junior artiste as she hardly appears in three or four scenes.
Priyadarshi’s character is another wasted role. Sanchana as opposition leader is good.
Technical Excellence:
Sam C’s two songs are totally bad, but his background score is effective. Cinematography, production values and artwork provide richness to the screen. Editing is clumsy.
Highlights:
Vijay Deverakonda
Some moments
Drawback:
Aimless narration
Bad screenplay
Tamil flavour
Analysis:
Just a few months ago, we had a movie named “Bharat Ane Nenu” in which a youngster becomes the chief minister of the state following the sudden demise of his father.
Vijay Devarakonda starrer Anand Shankar’s “NOTA” follows the same plotline, difference being that the father doesn’t pass away here, but steps down as CM.
Arc of the plot is so similar. Then how did Vijay Deverakonda allow for a story to be released without changing much?
Unlike “Bharat Ane Nenu”, this doesn’t elevate the protagonist. Here the hero is passive. His so-called “Rowdy CM” scenes are drab and boring.
He creates a war room for an emergency situation and uses youth and social media for rescue operations and the CM becomes a hero. Obviously this scene is inspired by the real events of recent Kerala floods.
Though the film’s story runs in Telangana, the movie is actually a Tamil movie dubbed into Telugu, all the scenes and political satires are on Tamil politics. They don’t ring a bell to us.
Since the film has been released for the Tamil audiences too, looks like a special effort has been made to endear Vijay to Tamil audiences instead of the Telugu audiences.
The first half itself is quite boring. Though some scenes in the second half are engaging and the sequences are better than the first half, the movie doesn’t hold interest at all.
How did Vijay Deverakonda agree to this story? What did he see in it? None of his acts as CM arouse heroism for us or provide a moment to clap.
In “Bharat Ane Nenu”, we get to see at least some good episodes apart from Mahesh Babu’s charismatic performance like “Durga Mahal” scene and “press conference” scene. Here there is no such scene that makes us feel for it.
There is a heroine. But why is she there, we don’t know. There is no romantic thread established between Vijay Deverakonda and Mehreen. There is no single romantic scene or song between them. Mehreen appears in exactly four scenes.
There are only two songs and both of them are party songs that are dull and boring.
No entertainment, no engaging thread, no clap worthy moment... the self-proclaimed political movie is a complete bland effort from director Anand Shankar.
Not even Vijay Deverakonda, who has given another good performance, manages to save this dubbed movie.
Adding to the clumsy narrative, there are two bad flashback stories of Nasser and Sathya Raj, which are a complete put off.
Lastly, we don’t know why the film is titled NOTA – None of The Above. Well, probably you can guess why after reading the review!
Bottom-line: Aimless
