Masala, melodrama and mother sentiment

Loafer’ is the third release of the year for director Puri Jagannadh, who had a mixed reception at the box-office in 2015. It is also the third film for his hero Varun Tej too, riding on the back of his critically-acclaimed ‘Kanche’. So the expectation levels with this flick made in a quick time of less than three months, with the pre-release hype raising it further, promises a sumptuous fare, Puri style!

Till the interval at least, what the 139-minute film offers is just run-of-the-mill masala. An over-the-top bad guy Posani Krishna Murali abandons his teacher wife Revathi to her fate with his toddler son, Varun Tej in tow, whom he vows to make a loafer like him, to survive in this big, bad, world. No prizes for guessing, if you are a regular Telugu film watcher, as he succeeds in double quick time, with laughably ridiculous attempts at doing so, shifting out of his hometown in the process.

After Bihar, the new locale within India is Jodhpur in Rajasthan for this film, replete with its majestic forts and palace resorts. Here is where the trickster father-son duo makes merry, duping and hoodwinking everyone in sight, including the dumb heroine Disha Patani, till the beefy, stiff villains speaking in gravelly dubbed voices (Mukesh Rishi with his insufferable hamming) cross their paths.

From here on, the action oscillates between what is a rural backdrop of Andhra and the stony terrains of Rajasthan as the director dishes out his usual staple fare– estranged family members, the young things falling in love, mother sentiment and melodrama and for a change, the criminal father being whipped by both the son and the mother as the film crash lands to an end. The ever-reliable formula of fight-song-sentiment-comedy is faithfully followed, something which the average film viewer is totally familiar with.

Varun Tej has a watchable screen presence and his heroine too is able to make an impression, however restricted and typical the scope is. The camera shows the two sides of the fort city of Rajasthan, its narrow alleys and rickety structures juxtaposing it with the still-intact palaces and aristocratic ambience.

With such a visual appeal on offer, a poorly conceptualised plot, plodding on with a typical mother-son sentiment fritters away the potential of a watchable entertainer which could have been possible. The year-end release may yet find takers for holding on to the audience interest in the second half of the film but Jagannadh seems to be still stuck in his easily predictable directorial techniques with no attempt to be fresh and different.

Film Name : Loafer

Cast : Varun Tej, Disha Patani, Revathi and Posani Krishna Murali

Direction : Puri Jagannadh

Genre : Drama-action

Likes : Varun, Revathi and cinematography

Dislikes : Formulaic

Rating : 21/2

By K Naresh Kumar