Shankar’s overuse of his ambitious socio-fantasy of frustrations of a common man is middled with flawed writing and his never-ending-hangover of war against corruption.
Shankar has garnered his own reputation for making cinematic social responsibility (CSR) films. Right from his revolutionary debut with Gentleman to the recent debacle of Indian 2/Bharateeyudu 2, he propagated against the corrupt politicians and insincere government officers. He was just a few miles away to get the recognition as an auteur of social responsibility films. Then, the continuous downfall and disappointments casted the doubts on Shankar that are now once again reaffirmed with Game Changer’s overambitious flawed writing.
Ram Nandan (Ram Charan) is an honest IPS turned IAS in Visakhapatnam, who decides to become an IAS officer upon the suggestion from Deepika (Kiara Advani). Deepika is nothing but a typical misfit for a heroine forced into the story just to be the catalyst for the honest angry hero to become the cool-minded honest hero. And, of course, for the songs too, the underwhelming and unnecessary songs drummed by SS Thaman.
SJ Suryah as the main villain performance is just limited to the eccentric caricaturish performances that he had been delivering. Srikanth as Bobbili Sathyamurthy, a corrupt CM turned to do good in his final days, has relevance in the story, but it lacks the depth that is needed. Both of the villains lack the heft. SJ Suryah is just bad because he is a greedy murderous politician, Srikanth is bad because he became a greedy murderous politician. Naveen Chandra as a wingman of SJ Suryah and weed-selling classmate of Ram Nandan is ignorable at the best.
Not-so-very-fun-fact: Priyadarshi has a guest appearance in Game Changer. Lucky, if you can spot him! Sorry, if you wonder ‘why’.
Appanna’s character, father of Ram Nandan, starts off with an excitement. He fights against the corporate’s exploitation of natural resources. Therefore, people demanded him to be their political leader and established the Abhyudaya Party with an ideal to do only money-less politics, which the party members, Sathyanarayana (Srikanth), expectedly abandons the ideals the moment the sweet-taste of greed is savoured. Therefore, Appanna is murdered and Anjali, his wife, is hit with some unnamed neurotic disease that doesn’t allow her to look straight, except to look at villian, Srikanth and the hero, Ram Nandan at her convenience. The parts of Ram Nandan’s ethical dilemma dealing with accepting Anjali as his mother in front of Chief Election Commission and the following sequence are quite interesting emotional moments in the movie despite its illogicity.
The flaws of Shankar are not his themes that he chose. But, subjects he chose. The theme of continuing his CSR films with the subjects of corrupt political leaders of ‘note for vote’ voters is the matter that has become irrelevant now. A Chief Election Commissioner asking the voters to demand 20 times more money than what politicians offer right after urging the voters that he has to arrest the voters for taking the money for voting is neither cinematic nor heroic. The same mess is repeated again when the hero casually uses the helicopter as an uber to drop off at highways to stop money-carrying trucks and at the SJ Suryah’s residence/office. First of all, who gives a helicopter to an IAS?
You might be wondering why I should be nitpicking the logical details in a “commercial mass masala” movie. But, in the same mass masala movie, Ram Nandan nitpicks, for all the right reasons. He demolishes the building in HYDRA-style when the fire extinguishing compliances are not followed by building the narrow lanes that doesn’t allow the fire extinguisher truck. And, what is that rule of law that prohibits an IAS officer from visiting the neighbouring district? Ram Nandan doesn’t enter the old-age residence that Deepika runs just because it is just a few meters away from Visakhapatnam’s mile-stone. Because it is forbidden. When did India revoked the right to mobility from its fundamental rights?
Shankar’s overuse of his commonman’s frustrations of the real world and offering socio-fantasy solutions to those problems in his own style is middled with flawed writing and his never-ending-hangover of war against corruption is extremely tiring due to the lack of novelty compared from his previous films of similar kind.
TF Rating: 2/5
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