This is Puri Jagannadh meets Nitin movie. Clearly focused at attracting a
committed viewership the script may wander but does not loose purpose. Backed
up by good team work the crew adds a high professional value to the film.
Heart attack can be perceived as a willingness (if not boldness) with the
protagonist who is a drifter and who wears his stance against matrimony on his
sleeve. Unlike the heroes who either love their women or hate them, Varun
(Nitin) woes without pretending to be in love. Somewhere you see this as a
cinematic extension of the images of Ranbir and Shahid in Bollywood. Therefore
the protagonist is a step forward in a mind-set that often fights hard to tred
away from the familiar feudal lords and male chauvinists.
Varun by character is different. He is however yet a Puri Jagannadh creation.
Thus he is romantic, can fight the goons as they come, dance spiritedly and
belt melodies every quarter of an hour. He is smitten in Spain by Hayathi (Adah
Sharma) who is visiting her friend Priya (Kesha Kambati) – the daughter of
ISCON Ramana (Brahmanandam). The film’s prologue has a set of goons trafficking
and peddling and when caught torturing a police man on the sea shores of Goa.
Hayathi after the initial hesitation falls in love with Varun who is not just commitment
phobic but believes that people and relationships are needless baggage in the
life of a drifter. However he realises his love after he has lost his Hayathi
to the peddler and trafficker Makarand (Vikram Jeet).
Nitin doubtlessly is the main stay of the film. With back to back hits and the
arrival at the Puri Jagannadh camp he clearly announces that he is no longer
star material. He is star. The placement of violence over what could have been
and acceptable take on a drifter realising the need for roots is sadly lost.
The director who dares to raise the issue unfortunately falls prey to the
stereotype of Tollywood. In fact Nitin as the lover boy who evolves from a
drifter to a lovelorn character is a picture of credibility. If only, the
director had taken the script on that plain and eschewed the temptation of the
formulistic milestones!! The Spain to Goa trip would have made for wonderful
viewing. Not so, simply because it is because Puri Jagannadh. The
cinematography and the music add value to the narration. Now that Ada Shah has
made her debut, she can surely afford to go to an acting school and pick up the
basics. Nothing is pointedly warranted to be stated about the others in the
cast except reiterate that wonderfully shoulders the film.
It is a film that is entertaining very often and yet hollow in the sense that
it is an opportunity lost at the doorstep of predictability. In a world where
even the successful are unwilling to bite the bullet it is indeed a sad
reflection of commerce of our cinema that perceptions of box office rule the
creative abilities of the film maker. The audience need to be taken more
seriously by the film maker. Someone surely will make the beginning. This could
have well been that start and the tragedy is that it is not.
L.Ravichander