Andhra Pori Movie Review
Star director Puri Jagannadh’s son Puri Akash made debut as hero with Andhra Pori that is a remake of Marathi movie titled Timepass. This film made headlines as few Andhra people’s sentiments were hurt by the title. However the movie made it to theaters on time.
Story :
Narsing Yadav (Akash) is a teenager who struggles to clear arriers in Tenth class. He falls in love with a school girl called Prashanti (Ulka Gupta). He keeps following her and saves her from a couple of problems. Now Prashanti too falls for Narsing’s innocent and straightforward character. Prashanti’s strict father comes to know about his daughter’s love and decides to take her away from that place.
Perfomances:
Akash Puri is a talented young kid. We have seen his capabilities in the films like Dhoni. He has given a flawless performance as the young guy with tender romantic feelings. Ulka Gupta is okay but struggles to match up with Akash in key scenes. Aravind Krishna is alright in a brief yet irrelevant character. The actor who played the father role of heroine is okay. Srimukhi is average in her limited role. Eeswari Rao and Uttej did important characters and they are good in their respective roles.
Technicalities:
Raj Madiraju who has done a original movie Rushi as his debut flick is not up to the mark with this remake. There are far too many problems with the film be it the lackluster script or the poorly etched drama. Director tried to give a poetic touch to this film by using classical music as the background theme but that isn’t effective enough. We have seen zillion movies with the same plot and we can’t blame the director for it as this is a remake.
Songs don’t appeal instantly but may grow on you in repeated hearings. Background score is impressive. Camera work is alright. Editing is uneven. Production values are good. Dialogues are pale and dull.
Thumbs Up:
- Akash’s confident performance
- Background score
Thumbs Down:
- Age old story
- Poor screenplay
- Weak direction
Analysis:
As mentioned earlier Andhra Pori has a very weak script that was seen in many movies already. Poor guy and rich girl falling in love is not interesting anymore. When veteran directors like Mani Ratnam are coming up with contemporary love stories like OK Bangaram, a fairly new director opting to remake such bland love story is questionable.
Although this movie is set in the nineties that itself doesn’t cover up the flaws in it. This film focuses on the teenage love that has enough scope to impress with tender romantic moments. However there isn’t a single moment that strikes the chord with audience. The love story is poorly dealt with the lead actors falling for each other for silly reasons.
One would expect the film to get interesting with the introduction of Aravind Krishna’s character. That is just used for the interval bang and Aravind Krishna hardly makes his presence felt during the second hour. Pre climax scenes are somewhat better than the rest of the movie. Climax is cliched and entirely predictable. Looks like Andhra Pori makers have ideas to make sequel to this movie. They may not dare to make that attempt after looking at the audiences’ reactions to Andhra Pori.
Verdict: This ‘Time Pass’ Remake is Sheer Time Waste.
