This AK fired better as a remake

'AK', the popular acronym for the 2020 Malayalam 'Ayyappanum Koshiyum' was truly like a weapon which fired non-stop as it marched triumphantly to terrific box-office collections, when it was released worldwide around three years ago. A pathbreaker of a film which saw two main characters – one entitled son of a politician and the other a policeman - not conceding an inch in their battle for one-upmanship was played by the youth icon Prithviraj and Biju Menon respectively. A crime-cum- social drama, it retained viewability for the Kerala viewers even as its runtime was a whopping 175 minutes.

Cut to 2022, the film was remade into Telugu with a hitherto unseen combination of Power Star Pawan Kalyan and Rana Daggubati. While the swagger and machismo was reserved totally for the political role played by Prithviraj in Malayalam, this role was played by Rana, while Pawan Kalyan, played the cop role which was seen playing catch-up till the final moments of the film in the original.

As far as reprisals go, Malayalam films, as this columnist's analysis shows, have enjoyed a steady support among Telugu film production banners. The unique value additions the storylines give to the lead characters in the original, with few twists and turns, have been successfully nativized in Hyderabad, in a majority of remakes.

With last of his five films being remade from Hindi and Tamil with mixed results, Pawan Kalyan's performance and ability to rouse his frenzied appeal among his fans was keenly awaited. Like the Kerala venture, this film too was a blockbuster of sorts with it being declared the best post-pandemic opener in both the Telugu states. On an investment of around Rs 70 crore, the film earned close to Rs 200 crore, a sureshot winner.

Reviewers across the media were lenient in their appraisal of the film with one of them commenting that "the remake turned out to be better than original, that has been spruced up with masala and mass moments but wisely have cut short the runtime as well". The acting of Pawan Kalyan was praised for its 'machismo' while Rana Daggubati who described his role as that of an 'entitled guy who played dirty' was noted for his matching the onscreen charisma of the Power Star. The director, Saagar K Chandra, who had left a career in US to follow his passion in Telugu cinema, hit big time with his third venture.