Akshay Shah Reviews "ATHADU" (Telugu, 2005)

ATHADU(Telugu, 2005)

So far I had seen two Mahesh Babu starrers both of which had thoroughly impressed me in different ways. OKKADU worked as one helluva great traditional masala film embellished with a superb script, seamless direction and laced with some excellent performances not to forget breath taking technical finesse. Next came POKIRI-a thoroughly bastardised product of Hollywood which in no way is a great movie, but one that is shamelessly entertaining for its technical wizardry, entertaining plot twists, a very suave performance by Babu as well as Illenas dazzling beauty. So does ATHADU live up to expectations? Well not quiet! It’s not as great a movie as OKKADU, nor it is enormously entertaining like POKIRI.


The movie revolves around Nandu(Mahesh Babu) and his best friend Malli(Rahul Dev) both of whom are professional contract killers. Killing is their “rozi roti” so to speak. While Nandu is an ace shooter and hot on the trigger, Malli is superb at planning the escapes. They are hired by a wily politician Siva Reddy(Sayaji Shinde) who wants a fake assassination attempt on his own life to gain public sympathy and votes so that he can become C.M. On the day the event is meant to take place-someone shoots Siva Reddy for real and it isn’t Nandu.


On the run from the police, Nandu boards a train where he meets Parbhu(Rajiv Kanakalla) who is returning home to his family after 12 years. In a police shootout Parbhu is shot dead, and Nandu assumes his identity and goes to his house to bring joy to his family. There he finds a happy family including a doting grandfather (Nasser) as well as a lively fiancée (Trisha). Love slowly begins to blossom between Nandu and his fiancé and he also starts helping the family out with their financial problems amongst other things. In the meantime a C.B.I officer (Prakash Raj) is hot on the case of the man who killed Siva Reddy. Soon Nandu finds out that he was double crossed, how Nandu takes revenge and also confronts the truth that he isn’t Parbhu forms the crux of the story.

The movie had a promising story; however the screenplay is a huge letdown. The makers have tried to cram way too many ideas into one movie, and not really developed any of them properly. There are shades of the Rajesh Khanna starrer DUSHMAN, as well as passing nod to the Salman Khan starrer TUMKO NA BHOOL PAYENGEI. One just wishes that the writers hadn’t decided to cram the movie with so much yet not develop any of it properly. The direction by Trivikram Srinivas could’ve been a lot tigher. The first 15 minutes of the movie is superb and establishes the character of Nandu and Malli superbly. Right up to the point where Siva Reddy is murdered the pace is fantastic and the direction tight. From the point where Nandu enters Parbhus house as Parbhu the movie starts to fall flat. The countless comic and romantic interludes between Nandu and his fiancé get tedious to a point and become so repetitive. Also the emotional bond that is so clearly needed for a story like this is not established at all. One wishes that there were more scenes with Nandu and his grandfather so when Nandus true identity is revealed there is more to grip the viewer. The film works best when it’s in thriller mode and the C.B.I officer is trying to find out who killed Siva Reddy. The identity of the killer doesn’t come across as a surprise, though the revelation is well done and works fairly well in the context of the story. The climax features a rather non-original yet outstandingly canned and deliciously entertaining shootout which will please the most hardcore fans, especially those who loved the gunplay and technical wizardry of POKIRI. It seemed like Mr.Srinivas was trying to merge a family/emotional based film with a action film, yet despite a superb masala premise his execution and screenplay doesn’t quiet support him.

As far as performances go, Mahesh Babu delivers yet another convincing performance. He plays the super-slick and icy-cool assassin Nandu with utmost conviction. And like with OKKADU and POKIRI, at face value one doesn’t expect Babu to do much damage in the action scenes, but when he does its pure dynamite and he is extremely convincing. He is pretty good in the romantic scenes, and shows a definite flair for comedy as well, although its evident Babu is most comfortable in the dramatic and action sequences. I do feel that he needs to work harder on his facial expressions in the more dramatic and emotional moments as he sometimes comes across as a bit wooden in parts. In saying that, Babu is the backbone of the movie, without him the movie would be almost hollow.

Trisha is OK in her part. Yes, she is very cute and sexy all in one a lot like my other two favourites Asin and Illena(though Illena takes the cake ANYDAY) yet she isn’t given much to do here except act childish, squeal, whinge and look gorgeous-all of which she does fine.

The movie has a fantastic supporting cast yet sadly none of them are given proper characterisations to flesh out a great performance.

Nasser is good in his part and performs with sincerity. Same goes for the ever-watchable Prakash Raj, though I wish they developed his angle a bit more. Sayaji Shinde, Rahul Dev and Sonu Sood all play their parts aptly. Brahmanandam is good in his comic role, though the placing of the comic sequences are badly placed.

Technically the movie is stylish and slick. Guhans camerawork is simply wicked, and he has given the movie a extremely gritty and slick look to it(specially in the action scenes). The camera angles are well done. Peter Hains is no doubt one of my fave action directors. Yes, at times he is heavily inspired by Hollywood films, and at other times he blatantly copies them. The climax shootout here is one helluva fun watch and technically VERY VERY slick, 2 gun slo-mo, bullets whizzing past in slo-mo, blood supporting left right and centre and bodies drop. And yes, the entire sequence is a direct lift from John Woo’s FACE/OFF mixed with a bit of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 right from the quiet church, the two friends having a verbal showdown as they get their guns ready, the doves and birds flying in the church in slo-mo to the entire 2 gun bullet-fest. Does it make it any less enjoyable? NO!


Mani Sarmas music is good, the title song is well done, though all the songs I felt hindered the films pace.

All up ATHADU is a movie that could’ve been SO much more had the screenplay been worked on harder and the direction been a lot tighter. Yes, there are individualistic scenes that have been superbly canned, and if you’re a fan of Mahesh Babu there is enough here to just satisfy you, but this definitely ain’t no OKKADU or POKIRI for that matter.

Pictures courtesy of www.indiaglitz.com

Overall Rating=6.0/10.0

A.Shah