When a movie has ALL elements required of an entertainer, the expected outcome is, at best, a disastrous potpourrie of ideas. Yet, what turned this imminent debacle into a super success is Allu Arjun's energy and style quotient that took Ala Vaikntapuramlo to another level altogether.
The movie begins with Murali Sharma, in a hospital, swapping his new-born child with that of Jayaram as he wished for his son's luxurious upbringing in the latter's house. Arjun, despite being constantly mocked by Murali, turns out to be smart and intelligent. On the other hand, Sushanth, the son of Murali turns out to be an unassertive failure, pampered as he was in the lap of luxury. Half way through the film Arjun discovers the truth of his parentage and then on tries to bring his alienated parents together and help his family.
The first half of the movie was fun to watch, with Allu Arjun's (rarely seen) restrained performance. He struggles through middle class living with Murali's constant put-downs. The first half was well-paced, representing a nice, comic and well-paced family drama.
In the second half, it looked like the director decided to put in all the elements that the mass audience expects of a Allu movie. Gone was the restraint of the first half, the pace quickened, throwing in as many characters as possible...reducing super talents like Navdeep, Ramakrishna, Tabu, Tanikella, Rajendra Prasad, Brahmaji, Sunil, Vennella Kishore, Nivetha Pethuraj ... to caricaturish portrayals. Sad to see the blink-and-miss roles.
Navdeep's presence, especially, made you look forward to watching the magic created by the duo in Arya 2 repeat itself. But alas, this was not to be!
Only three characters were etched well. Allu Arjun as hero, Murali Sharma as the villain and Sachin Khedekar as Arjun's grandfather. And what remarkable performances by all three!
Sachin' s character is a catalyst to all the important twists that the story meanders though and he made sure he involved Arjun at every pivotal point to highlight his grandchild's prowess.
The heroine is Pooja Hegde's beautiful, long legs which are used to portray the message, 'when a girl says no, it means a no." That's the role and significance of the heroine in the movie.
The songs also have everything in them, local, melodic, folk, item song et al...Samaja makes a significant impression with its melody.
And for the very first time, I noticed fights in a movie. They were very stylishly choreographed and quite gracefully executed by Arjun.
Despite the flawed second half, slick execution by the director, Trivikram and super energetic performance by Allu Arjun has helped create yet another successful movie by the duo
A 3.5 on 5 rating for the sheer entertainment value.
