Gautam Nanda: A lacklustre fare

The more things change, the more they stay the same… goes the famous adage. Commercial Telugu filmdom has mastered this approach for sure. Such is the undying love for formulistic way of film making among the directors, be they leading ones, or those who have been trying to make waves of their own in the industry recently.

Whipping out the vintage plot of identity confusion where one trades place for the other, in the process imparting gyan on self-identity, family values and social principles to the audience, director Sampath Nandi unleashes ‘Macho Star’ Gopichand on the hapless viewers in a double role.

Obviously, one role would be of a person rich and suave and the other poor and crass. When they both move into each other’s worlds, what happens and how it all pans out to highlight the universal truth that greed is the source of all evil is the narration, spread out in over two hours.

After introducing Richie Rich Gopichand, the son of a Forbes-listed billionaire in a typically lavish setting, Nandi sends him into a self-seeking path, where he bumps into his lookalike, a wastrel, who is keen to die rich. As they mutually agree to swap places for a month to know how the other lives, the film skids into a dull, monotonous track, sustained by contrived and artificial situations.

Credit goes to the director however to bring back the villainous Gopichand in one of the roles, a sort of an anti-hero, many years after his 2002 hit ‘Jayam’ where he was the bad man. However, even after nearly 15 years in the movie world, the hero comes across as one who is wooden and lacking an emotional connect with the characters he plays.

Hansika Motwani, who had disappeared from local cinema for some time now comes back to do nothing much. Catherine Tresa plays the seductress with an agenda, only to reform in the end and align herself with the hero. Of course, the camera fixes its male gaze on the latter who is the eye candy, hitting her mark effortlessly among the front-benchers.

The theme reminds one of the Tamil dub ‘Bichchagadu’, where the hero lives a poor man’s life to save his mother’s life for a limited period, despite being an affluent business tycoon. While the parental love sentiment worked well for that film, the convoluted message-mongering that Sampath Nandi tries out with his recent flick only ends up irritating the audience.

Film Name : Gautam Nanda

Cast : Gopichand, Hansika Motwani, Catherine Tresa, Nikithin Dheer and Mukesh Rishi
Direction : Sampath Nandi
Genre : Action/ Drama
Likes : Production values
Dislikes : Age-old story