Ek Niranjan- a formula film from the Puri Jagannath Factory

Sethumadhavan   | Review | November 4, 2009 at 8:53 am         Print

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After Bujjigadu-Made in Chennai, the combination of director PuriJagannath and hero Prabhas is back again with Ek Niranjan. This one bears the stamp of typical mass hero formula films in Telugu, something that Puri Jagannath seems to relish following the stupendous success of his Pokiri. The plot is fairly simple. The movie begins with Chotu (Prabhas) getting separated from his family during his childhood as he is abducted by Chidambaram (Makrand Deshpande). Chidambaram forces Chotu to become a beggar just as he has forced a lot of other children too. One day on a tip off from Chotu the police arrests Chidambaram but Chotu continues to keep in touch with Chidambaram in jail as he knows that he is the only link to his family.

As Chotu grows up he goes on to make a living as a police informer who turns in people wanted by the police. On one such occasion when he is on the lookout for a gangster Kailash, ( Mukul Dev ) wanted for the murder of the CM, he crosses the path of Johny Bhai ( Sonu Sood ), an underworld don. Chotu also falls in love with Sameera (Kangna Ranaut at her awful best) who is a guitar teacher and Sameera’s brother again happens to be someone that Chotu is after. So what happens to Chotu? Does he unite with his family? Does he win his love? Are there any twists in the tale? The rest of the movie answers all the questions in routine customary style.

Talking about Puri Jagannath, he is somebody who has made some interesting movies like Idiot, Amma Naana O Tamila Ammayi, Super etc before the formula bug bit him hard with Pokiri. That Pokiri was a trendsetter is by now known to all and following the success of Pokiri he seems to be following the same path with his movies like Desamuduru, Chiruta, Bujjigadu-Made in Chennai and Neninthe. Neninthe was supposed to be an inside story of how the Telugu film industry works. But in trying to balance realism with escapism, somewhere the objective got lost.

Going back to Ek Niranjan, Puri Jagannath seems to be suffering from the Pokiri hangover in a major way. If it was Mahesh Babu as Pandu trying to act uber cool in Pokiri here it is Prabhas doing the same in Ek Niranjan. You had a villain Ali Bhai ( Prakash Raj ) with some kickass dialogue baazi in Pokiri and and here you have Johny Bhai ( Sonu Sood relishing his role with gusto ) doing the same. Ok there was one child in Pokiri and here you have a handful of children. The similarities do not end here. There are lots of sequences again which give you a feeling of déjà vu.

Prabhas seems to really thrive in these roles and he has come up with a more than passable performance. The less said about Kangna Ranaut, the better. She has probably never looked more awful on screen than in this movie (whom do we blame for this?). Tanikella Bharani, Makrand Deshpande,Posani Murali Krishna and Mukul Dev are ok. But the real hero of the movie according to me is none other than Sonu Sood. As Johny Bhai, he plays the don with a sadistic streak brilliantly with a comic touch. The dialogues,expressions and the costumes suit him very well. In fact the dialogues between Sonu Sood and his accomplice,Bhramaji are the main highlights of the movie. Brahmanandam, Ali, Sunil and Venu Madhav have been used just as props.

The music by Mani Sharma is decent with the pick of the lot being the opening song – “ Amma ledu, nana ledu, akka chelli tambi leru, ek niranjan” . What takes you by surprise is the last song though- “are rey narthana thara “which is a sort of tribute to Michael Jackson with some of MJ’s footage playing in the background as well. Having said all this I am feeling a little tempted to think of what would have been in Puri Jagannath’s mind when he was conceptualizing the movie and given below is a sample check list that he must have used-

1.A cool entry scene for the hero with a nice energetic song to follow ( how else would we cheer the hero enthusiastically on his entry )
2.Back story for the hero ( so that there’s an element of intrigue )
3.A Villain with brilliant sense of dialogue delivery and comic timing
4.Emotional quotient to be used at the right time with use of family sentiment
5.Heroine who is shown as vulnerable and fragile to whom the hero loses his heart instantly.
6.At least couple of songs to be shot overseas (Well we are teaching our song and dance routine to the outside world)
7.Comedy brigade with all the big names included ( so what if they hardly have any screen time )
8.The mandatory chases and fights ( with statutory rope shots ) for the desired effect
9.Item song
10.Punch Dialogues

Well I can go on and on but let me stop my sample check list with the main elements listed and I can safely tell you all that in most of these elements Puri Jagannath doesn’t disappoint over here in Ek Niranjan . In spite of the extreme déjà vu factor the movie is still time pass fare for most part of it when suddenly the movie shifts its base to Bangkok (probably the producer Aditya Ram wanted to reward everyone with a foreign trip) and things suddenly look forced. Even the dialogues seem to get laid back over here. Sample this – when Sonu Sood tells his goons that they should rush to Bangkok and when Bhramaji asks him how he can be so sure that Prabhas is in Bangkok, the reply from Sonu Sood is
“Lets go and search, if we don’t find him I’ll settle for a Thai massage instead “ . All said and done if you are yearning for some good old masala movie due to the hangover from “Wanted “, Ek Niranjan is not bad for a one time watch. But its high time Puri Jagannath reinvents himself otherwise he would continue to make clones of Pokiri.

Tags: Aditya Ram, Ek Niranjan, Kangna Ranaut, Mahesh Babu, mani sharma, Prabhas, Puri Jagannath, Sonu Sood, Telugu