Some things are natural in S. Shankar’s films. First, there is usually a social message against corruption. His heroes are often murderous vigilantes who sentence greedy politicians, officials, and businessmen to death. Secondly, there is a spectacular musical setting. This is the same director who previously took us to Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa through song.
And third, there will be a spectacle. This filmmaker has never met a scenario that he couldn’t make bigger and more colorful. “I’m unpredictable,” says Ram Nandan (Ram Charan), the protagonist of “Game Changer,” Shankar’s latest film and first Telugu film. But Shankar, who has been making films for 32 years and is one of the original pan-Indian directors along with Mani Rathnam, is not.
game changer
conclusion
It’s too ridiculous to be funny.
Release date: January 10th (Friday)
Cast: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, S.J. Surya, Anjali
Director: S. Shankar
Screenplay: Kartik Subbaraj
2 hours 45 minutes
In Game Changer (which this reviewer saw dubbed in Hindi), Shankar’s signature maximalist storytelling instincts went into overdrive. Every beat is heightened. Every expression is an exaggeration. Every emotion is imprinted in our brain. For two hours and 45 minutes, the film oscillates between the ridiculous and the even more ridiculous.
But while this atmosphere of deranged excess is part of the fun of a Shankar film, it only works if it ties into a coherent narrative. Game Changer, based on Karthik Subbaraj’s novel, has some similarities. However, the storytelling only starts about 15 minutes before intermission, quickly veers into outlandish territory, and stays there.
Case in point: This movie features not one, but two characters who can only be seen sideways. One person was born that way – his name is Syed Satyam (Sunil) and this is supposed to be comedy material. The other person’s neck is bent in one direction because he witnessed a tragedy so terrible that he lost his mental balance and lost the ability to move his face forward. This is supposed to be meant to stir up high emotions, but honestly, it just seems like unintentional comedy.
Kiara Advani plays Deepika, Ram’s girlfriend who meets Ram during their college days. Her character falls into the “even more ridiculous” category. When Ram is suspended from school, Deepika consoles him saying that she now has time to plan her marriage. In another scene, when Ram suggests playing a prank on them, she asks with a straight face if they are going against their culture and crossing the line.
But my favorite is the scene where she gives Ram the unforgettable advice to redirect his anger by joining the Indian administration. It’s as if cracking one of India’s most competitive exams (with a pass rate of 0.1 to 0.3 percent) to become an officer acts like some kind of therapy.
Ram takes her proposal seriously and joins the Indian Police Force, becoming an IAS officer overseeing an election rife with corruption, violence, and voter fraud. It’s sad to see such a great actor like Advani reduced to a pretty prop, but she has a sparkly pink outfit that would make Barbie dolls jealous and some very nice salwar suits. I will wear it.
The burden of the film rests on the shoulders of Charan, who plays not only Ram but also Ram’s father Appanna. Both are symbols of justice and masculinity. There is also a background song with the lyrics “You are God”. Ram spends a lot of time getting in and out of helicopters and this is probably the best use of a helicopter since Shah Rukh Khan got out of a helicopter in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum. We see Ram as a village leader, a college hooligan fighting injustice, a righteous cop and even a better IAS officer.
He can also be seen energetically dancing in several musicals that are rumored to have cost around 75 billion yen (approximately $8.7 million) to produce. While these sequences are bright and colorful, visualization is largely forgotten, as it was once Shankar’s USP. Charan works on different versions of the two characters, but his performance gets lost in the sound and fury.
One star who looks like he’s having fun is SJ Surya, who plays a big bad politician named Mopidevi. Being a strong actor, he seemed to have decided why he was holding back. He moves with all his might and finds delicious veins of comedy in every serious and social message.
Shankar helps Surya’s performance by refusing to let the camera stand still, even for a nanosecond. In more dramatic scenes, they move in circles with dizzying ferocity. Cinematographer S. Thirunavukkarasu showed us some Ram Gopal Varma-esque angles, including a shot taken from inside a garbage can. The soundtrack by Thurman S may have been a saving grace, but it’s so frenetic that it becomes tiring.
Game changer can mean many things, but it’s not a game changer.