Too gentle

The twist happens exactly at half time. It is here that it throws up the question: Gentleman: Hero or villain? The entire first half is a rollercoaster of Telugu cinema romance and not surprisingly the two gals vying for the same guy is in place. The story opens up with the two ladies in luxury seats on a flight back to India.

We have Catherine (Nivetha Thomas) and Aishwarya (Surabhi) who while crossing the seven seas decide to share boyfriend details. It starts with Catherine telling her story of how it was the inevitable love at first sight story with her and her fiancé Gautam (Nani). Gautam is the multifaceted daring young hero who is out there at the theatres in every cinema and far away from anyone you have ever laid your eyes on in real life.

He can woo, sing, dance, beat up goons and do just anything at will. He obviously has an Aladdin ka chirag in his anatomy. Catherine, however, has an uncle who has evil designs on his niece. She walks out of the apartment. She is returning to India after a short programme in UK. Now time for Aishwarya (Surabhi) who is engaged to Jayaram Mullapudi (Nani).

The wedding would well have been on but for the fact that her uncle Mohan (Tanikella Bharani) recently committed suicide. The brief love story between Aishwarya and Jai is told with songs and romance. Jai like Gautam is multifaceted and is winning entrepreneurial awards. Assisting him in this is Vamsi (Srinivas Avasarala).

All the characters have moms, dads, uncles, sisters etc who add to the cast of the film. We need not talk about them since even the websites do not seem to recognise their presence. As the flight lands in Hyderabad, Catherine is in for a surprise when she sees that Jai is a lookalike of her fiancé Gautam.

Surprise turns into shock when she is told by Gautam’s mom that he died in a road accident. Soon Catherine smells a rat and with the assistance of a nosy journalist Nitya, she goes about to solve the murder mystery. As she delves into the happenings it is clear that Jai is the killer and also that he is hoping to marry Aishwarya for her wealth and she is the next victim on his wait list.

Why would Jai want to kill Gautham, given the fact that he may be interested in the wealth of Aish? Why does the nice uncle commit suicide? Is something brewing and if so what is it all about? These questions get answered in a linear fashion with not much surprise but fortunately without too much drama and violence either. Director Mohanakrishna Indraganti keeps it simple as simple as it gets in commercial Tollywood.

It offers a few twists and turns which are not very difficult to predict given our premise and the manner of our cinema. There are no real surprises. Much less are they any anxious moments. Even the cast seem to know the script so well that nothing surprises them and they are all out there either on a picnic of sorts or a shoot for the tale. No one tries to really bring authenticity to the role or to the narration. Nani fights a lone battle to bring credibility.. Rounding up, ‘Gentleman’ might fall short on thrill quotient, but is not as loud and overexcited as most T-Town films.

Film Name : Gentleman

Cast : Nani, Surabhi and Nivetha Thomas
Direction : Mohanakrishna Indraganti
Genre : Romance-thriller
Likes : Nani
Dislikes : Narration

By L Ravichander