Sikander Telugu Movie Review

Out there we are never tired of telling the stories with inspiration from elsewhere. This time there is a grand release of a dubbed film. Good it is that large crowds are available and willing to watch a film though dubbed and willing to put their money beyond the regular named heroes of Tollywood. Welcome Surya to the acceptable zone of fandom outside Tamilnadu. True, this is not the first time that the matinee idol of Tamil cinema is tasting success here. It is redeeming and hopeful.
What is the film about: Bro Krishna (Suriya) comes from Vizag to Mumbai in search of his missing brother Raj bhai a underworld Don who has gone missing after being involved in crime and violence. The response varies from fear to outright rejection. He moves from one person to another to find out the whereabouts of the missing brother. He meets Kareem bhai (Joe Mallori) and thus we have a flash back of Raja Bhai and his criminal past. Raja and his very close friend Chandu (Vidyut Jamwal) rule the roost. Big bad guys like JK (Dalip Thahil) are made to eat the dust. Humbled dons are vengeful so the twosome are on the look out for shootouts and killings like the normal for office files and sales targets. For us it is malls for them brawls. Krishna is taken around the city by the cab driver (Soori where contrived humour) as he is in search of missing bro. Interlacing the search are pieces of the biography of Raja the multi talented Don who also has fallen in love with the police Commissioner’s daughter (Samanta). The battle lines are drawn when Imran Bhai (Manoj Bajpai) another of the mafia kings insults Chandu and Raja executes the avenging plan. Soon battle lines are drawn and intrigue and double cross completely takes over.
Juxtapositioned with the killings of many including Murali Sharma, Chetan Hansraj, we have the duo romancing and dancing with gay abandon. Kill sing kill sing is the drill.
We lead to a climax which shows how evil wins over evil because the heroes evil is more ethical than the villains evil. It is fearful to believe that the choice is now about the lesser evil.
What works: Surya and Vidyut Jamwal. There bonding is without too much dramatics and yet endearing. Even the Samanta Surya screen Chemistry. Surya continues his magic touch. Soon it could become predictable and one-dimensional. However as of now it works. As before he does not invest too much in contrasting the styles of the twin roles he performs. The script however justifies the seeming lack of contrast between Krishna and Raaj. He is the fulcrum of the film. He is in his element: nibble footed, stylised, with his six pack and sharp features. He pays equal attention to the dance and stunt scenes, fights and romance: what more would the film maker want of the central character? Samanta does not have much to do but does add the required spice. Even the rest of the cast including the habitual ham Manoj Bajpayee don’t work on your nerves.
What does not: The script. The force and punch is missing. Somewhere the film maker N. Lingusamy fails to convert the cast enthusiasm to the sleek story that could have been told. A near three hour tale of just killings and shoot out punctuated by romance and dance manages to draw just a drool from the audience that wants its films short and coterminous with the large bucket of Popcorn. Brahmandandam proves that he too can fail. The stunts fall flat in compare to the earlier Surya outings that include Ghazni, and the Singham franchise, Surya son of Krishnan, Veeduokade, 7th Sense etc.
Most importantly it seems to work for the film maker. The long week end is sure to get the film maker the money and the success seems a foregone conclusion. There is enough and more for the Surya fan. For the rest it just another outing with a over feed of commercial masala.

Rating : 2 stars
+ Surya and Vidyut Jamwal
_ 170 minutes running time