Bro

death

• Cast: Pawan Kalyan, Sai Dharam Tej
• Director: P. Samuthirakani
• Dialogue, Screenplay: Trivikram
• Music Director: Thaman S

After dying in a car accident, Markandeya asks the God of Time for a little more time to fulfill his familial responsibilities. The God of Time gives him 90 more days of life and follows Mark on his journey. This forces Mark to self-reflect and challenge his beliefs about himself.

The plot itself held a lot of room for engagement and introspection from the audience. The story is definitely outside the norm. Poor execution fumbled the premise and finale.

• Direction: The ending of the movie was clear. With that in mind, there should have been more done to add depth to scenes and engage the audience. There were multiple scenes in the movie when stardom and forced comedy took priority over the story and natural character interactions. Overall, one of the areas that let down the movie.
• Acting: Sai Dharam Tej appeared to act differently when sharing a screen with his uncle Pawan Kalyan compared to when he was on his own. Common to both of those presentations on his part was an indifference to the dialogue, character and scene. Pawan Kalyan offered the bare minimum to the role without making effort to fill the character with the complexity it had the potential to have. Supporting characters were a delight to watch with actress Rohini deserving a special mention for her dependable dedication to her role.
• Production Design: The introduction to the God of Time started off strong with a highly subjective interpretation of what God could look like. Unfortunately, that novelty was not supported by the production design which has been seen and done multiple times in the Western lens. In the scenes beyond life when Mark is speaking to Titan inconsistencies in the characters’ size made it clear that they weren’t shot together. The scene in the water was underproduced and deserved better attention.
• Editing: There was definitely a lot of shots that could’ve been trimmed and contributed to a quicker flow. If the team’s focus was the stardom on screen, the way the movie played out makes sense.
• Music: There were no particular musical moments that stood out to the watcher. What did stand out though was the unnecessary number of songs from previous Pawan Kalyan films. Those moments teetered between being nostalgic and annoying.
• Dialogues: While the dialogue is reminiscent of Trivikram’s style, what was missing in this movie was a stronger connection not just to the story but to the audience. Trivikram in the past has made multiple iconic scenes and dialogue that ring true to society through relatable and honest character presentation. Without the support of those, the dialogue became tedious to listen to.
• Themes: The movie touches upon doing good and the lack of control over life but neither concept was dived into enough.

• God wearing a lungi and serving chai to his visitor was a special moment with no follow-up. When novel concepts are taken into cinema, there is a lot of derivation from Western movies which can be disappointing. Concepts like these would be so much more engaging if there was more audacity in bringing an Indian context to them.
• The movie was pretty predictable but what had me distracted most of the time was that I didn’t understand why Titan gave Mark a second chance. Mark’s argument to give him a second chance is weak and doesn’t pull the audience to root for him. There isn’t any explanation to address this either. In the end, Titan implies that he takes people who selflessly do good to heaven but Mark never appears to do anything like that. Why was he taken?

If atypical stories interest you, this movie might be worth a watch if you can sacrifice depth. Pawan Kalyan fans definitely have reason to indulge in this one. There’s better stuff out there.

• It’s irritating when the dialogue can be anything but of course, why not sneak in some misogyny there – when complaining about the economic burden of his sisters, Mark puts education, books, eyeliner and lip gloss all together – seriously bro? (pun intended)
• Did they really not have anyone else to play actor Ali Reza’s brother in the movie?
• There were a couple of moments that alluded to Pawan Kalyan and his fame which were just tacky.
• A random running green flag was Vicky’s character whose shoes were filled excellently by actor Raja Chembolu. The writing of his character and the way that he played it was endearing.
• Mythbuster: The physician in the movie claims that Parkinson’s typically affects rich people which, as studies have shown, is not true

• Movie Rating: 5/10
• Maguva Impact Scale: 0