Post by odadune on Dec 12, 2013 21:00:01 GMT
Old thread here: www.bollywhat-forum.com/index.php?topic=30091.0
This is an action/comedy masala about a chameleonic young rowdy named Tony (NTR Jr), who gets stuck in a hostage situation in Kashmir with a ditzy young fashion designer named Niharika (Tamannaah). The two end up kissing because they think they're about to die, Tony falls madly in love with Niharika, beats up the Kashmiri insurgents, and the two escape and are separated. Tony tracks Niharika down in Delhi, discovers she has a rich but vaguely unpleasant fiance who is going out of town, and proceeds to woo her aggressively and hilariously, in between meddling in the affairs of some small-time gangsters and elevating them to big-time status. The fiance turns out to be connected to some really big-time gangsters (including Vidyut Jamwal, who prior to that has been showing up at random intervals to be dashing and affably evil) and then things get messy and complicated, and we learn that Tony actually has a strange connection to Niharika's past, and very specific reasons for trying to protect her...
"Oosaravelli" means chameleon, and refers to Tony's trickster bada$$ tendencies and ability to turn from playful to dangerous in the blink of an eye; this is one of those masalas that wants you to be somewhat off-balance about what the hero's capable of and what his place in the story is (in the style of the Wanted/Pok(k)iri cycle, or the Vikramarkudu/Rowdy Rathore cycle). NTR handles the role well; his nonthreatening joviality and resemblance to the Belushi brothers makes his teasing and interference towards Niharika and her friend more tolerable than it would be otherwise, and he handles the rowdy scenes with conviction. I found him a bit bland in the more serious romantic scenes (there's one that comes off as downright cruel unless you read some kind of underlying angst about what he is into his behavior), but since you're supposed to be somewhat confused about Tony's intentions, I was willing to let it slide.
What sets this movie apart is not the script (functionable but kind of unfocused), the action scenes (mostly generic gunplay; Vidyut does not get to do what he does best), or the songs/picturizations (which are a criminal waste of the leads' dancing skills) or the comic relief (although I found it funnier than average), but the roles of Niharika and her female friend/confidante/roommate.
The latter is a funnier and (comparatively) more realistic best friend than either heroes or heroines typically get, and Niharika herself is an unusually well-developed heroine to find in such a male-centric genre. Her idealism and compassion are presented as noble and larger than life qualities, even though they frequently bring her into conflict with Tony, but when she's confronted with a crime that cries out to be avenged, she's the one crying out for the avenging, and the tragedy that drives the plot turns out to be one from her past, rather than Tony's. I'm a sucker for stories where the hero sees himself as the heroine's champion and defender, as long as I can believe in the woman as a forceful personality in her own right, and Tamannaah certainly does that here. I found a couple of her angstier scenes a bit overdone (although the problem is arguably the dub artist rather than the actress's physical performance), but in general she handles the different sides of the character-flirty, soft-hearted, steely, devastated-really well, and her clothes are awesome enough to make one believe that Niharika's future as a fashion designer is bright.
The film was only an average grosser (one of NTR's more recent films, with a similar split between a silly first half and a dark second half, had similar issues at the box office), but it's been remade in Bengali with Mithun Chakraborty's son in the lead, and we've been threatened with a Hindi remake at least twice, once in 2011 (not long after the film first came out) with Ranbir Kapoor's name attached, and once again in 2013 when Akshay Kumar took an interest in it. Neither attempt has gone anywhere, so far as I know.
This is an action/comedy masala about a chameleonic young rowdy named Tony (NTR Jr), who gets stuck in a hostage situation in Kashmir with a ditzy young fashion designer named Niharika (Tamannaah). The two end up kissing because they think they're about to die, Tony falls madly in love with Niharika, beats up the Kashmiri insurgents, and the two escape and are separated. Tony tracks Niharika down in Delhi, discovers she has a rich but vaguely unpleasant fiance who is going out of town, and proceeds to woo her aggressively and hilariously, in between meddling in the affairs of some small-time gangsters and elevating them to big-time status. The fiance turns out to be connected to some really big-time gangsters (including Vidyut Jamwal, who prior to that has been showing up at random intervals to be dashing and affably evil) and then things get messy and complicated, and we learn that Tony actually has a strange connection to Niharika's past, and very specific reasons for trying to protect her...
"Oosaravelli" means chameleon, and refers to Tony's trickster bada$$ tendencies and ability to turn from playful to dangerous in the blink of an eye; this is one of those masalas that wants you to be somewhat off-balance about what the hero's capable of and what his place in the story is (in the style of the Wanted/Pok(k)iri cycle, or the Vikramarkudu/Rowdy Rathore cycle). NTR handles the role well; his nonthreatening joviality and resemblance to the Belushi brothers makes his teasing and interference towards Niharika and her friend more tolerable than it would be otherwise, and he handles the rowdy scenes with conviction. I found him a bit bland in the more serious romantic scenes (there's one that comes off as downright cruel unless you read some kind of underlying angst about what he is into his behavior), but since you're supposed to be somewhat confused about Tony's intentions, I was willing to let it slide.
What sets this movie apart is not the script (functionable but kind of unfocused), the action scenes (mostly generic gunplay; Vidyut does not get to do what he does best), or the songs/picturizations (which are a criminal waste of the leads' dancing skills) or the comic relief (although I found it funnier than average), but the roles of Niharika and her female friend/confidante/roommate.
The latter is a funnier and (comparatively) more realistic best friend than either heroes or heroines typically get, and Niharika herself is an unusually well-developed heroine to find in such a male-centric genre. Her idealism and compassion are presented as noble and larger than life qualities, even though they frequently bring her into conflict with Tony, but when she's confronted with a crime that cries out to be avenged, she's the one crying out for the avenging, and the tragedy that drives the plot turns out to be one from her past, rather than Tony's. I'm a sucker for stories where the hero sees himself as the heroine's champion and defender, as long as I can believe in the woman as a forceful personality in her own right, and Tamannaah certainly does that here. I found a couple of her angstier scenes a bit overdone (although the problem is arguably the dub artist rather than the actress's physical performance), but in general she handles the different sides of the character-flirty, soft-hearted, steely, devastated-really well, and her clothes are awesome enough to make one believe that Niharika's future as a fashion designer is bright.
The film was only an average grosser (one of NTR's more recent films, with a similar split between a silly first half and a dark second half, had similar issues at the box office), but it's been remade in Bengali with Mithun Chakraborty's son in the lead, and we've been threatened with a Hindi remake at least twice, once in 2011 (not long after the film first came out) with Ranbir Kapoor's name attached, and once again in 2013 when Akshay Kumar took an interest in it. Neither attempt has gone anywhere, so far as I know.