“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin'' ― Mother Teresa
Pre-release events, a publicity activity to build anticipation among fans especially in the South Indian film industry, which is known for its grandeur and extravagance have become a not only a trend but an important element of movie making in Tollywood.
Promotions of movies are not just limited to pre-release events, teasers, or first-look posters. Now the makers are taking the route of paid premieres for spreading the good word about their movies.
However, to the reasons strange for the fans of Pawan Kalyan, Power Star his latest release “BRO” witnessed no such hype before it hit the screens, when compared to the hype that witnessed for his previous movies and given the trend to that effect.
The bystanders might it find this lack of pre-release hype as innocuous, particularly at a time when Pawan Kalyan was making political headlines through his Varahi campaign and it was expected the pre-release hype around the movie would have both helped the Box-office cause and his political messaging.
Therefore, the lack of such pre-release hype around BRO is intriguing.
Maybe, the actor-turned politician in him treaded caution wary of a box-office impact and ensured no such hype around the movie in the backdrop of huge backlash he faced from Volunteers, a kind of social workers of the government system for his not so wise comments that aimed to criminalize their services to create a distrust against them from the people they had been serving.
Despite no such pre-release hype, one could say that it was much anticipated movie more for the political events involving Pawan Kalyan that unfolded in the run up to the release of the movie than for any expectations of movie making grandiose and creativity that we are witnessing in Tollywood.
BRO is a film written and directed by P. Samuthirakani, with Pawan Kalyan and Sai Dharam Tej in the lead roles.
The movie revolves around a simple question about life and death: Is death really the last great adventure?
Centered around the above theme the director weaves a tale that questions the idea of free will, fate, luck, and ultimately, death.
Mark (Sai Dharam Tej), the oldest of three siblings, with two sisters and a younger brother is who decides everything for his family.
He believes that the lives of the people around him are entirely dependent on him, making him a control freak. While returning from a business trip, he meets with an accident and dies.
He then meets Pawn Kalyan who plays the role of Time. Time gives him 90 days to fulfil all his unsatisfied dreams. What happens next forms the story of the film.
Pawan Kalyan had essayed a similar kind of role earlier in a movie called “Govind Govinda”, the only difference is here he is forced to utter spiritual messages about time. Usually, the messages are on your face, like what one witnessed in his earlier film in reference. Where, like Govinda Govinda, the director creates a fantasy universe that makes it feasible for the protagonist to convey the message.
Here Pawan Kalyan’s in contrast to his Power Star image is noticed lecturing message after message plays the role of Time, a god-like character here, he keeps travelling with the Sai Dharam Tej’s character, Mark, throughout, lecturing him, and indirectly the audience, how to be a good human being, and that things keep happening around us irrespective of our presence in those situations.
But the problem is that this message which is spelt out to right at the start, keeps on repeated at every situation in proving that Time, the character played by PK is right and Mark is wrong, robbing the film of any twists and turns and the mass entertainment that one usually expects from Pawan Kalyan’s films, thereby affecting the very engagement of his fans even.
With a runtime of just above an hour and a half, with some solid performances from both the main characters, which weren’t there, might have made the film watching experience better than what it should have.
This should have been a cakewalk role for Pawan, but somehow, the role of a God like character, as the movie progresses becomes more comical and stereotypical after a while. He goes overboard with his antics in a few sequences.
Although certain one-liners and the overall flow of narrative remains the same to that of its Tamil original, the changes that are made to suit Pawan Kalyan’s hero image fail to enhance the film.
On the surface level, it might not seem that Pawan Kalyan did anything unique or different from what we haven’t seen him do earlier.
The present day society steps out of houses more aware of its mortality than ever before. We know how little its well-laid future plans actually matter. It knows how things can turn upside down in a matter of just days. But is there something that can actually be done?
Through BRO, the movie, Pawan Kalyan and Co tell us that although there is very little we can do, it shouldn’t stop us from being… Well, nice people………….
And, at a time, the Volunteers hit the streets accusing him of not being nice and courteous to them and to the hard work they were putting in, such, humanitarian preaching from Pawan Kalyan reeked with hypocrisy.
A harmless time-pass flick, the film deserved a better making. Nevertheless, the film with a run time of less than 100 minutes, keeps you wondering whether it’s a movie of Pawan Kalyan, the power star for it lacked the usual mass ingredients that one expected from his movies, nor the movie has any political overtones disappointing the masses that thronged to hear speak from atop Varahi.
Thankfully, PK ensured a subdued approach both in the movie and around the pre-release hype, in contrast to the whatever happening about his politics at present, which has resulted in an overall difference in the output, when some kind tacit political message was expected.
The film released without much hype and hoopla; its somewhat okayish trailer which triggered certain ambiguity, helped both the audience and his fans refrain from pinning high expectations and it’s here the movie appeared to have scored some box-office points.
His fans expected that “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin” kind message the film carried, around his politics so far by sending a subtle message over his politics of today and asking them “Bro…Let’s start afresh….
No doubt they must have walked out of theatres a bit disappointed.
Director: Samuthirakani
Producers: TG Vishwa Prasad, Vivek Kuchibhotla
Cast: Pawan Kalyan,Sai Dharam Tej, Ketika Sharma, Priya Prakash Varrier, Brahmanandam, Subbaraju, Rohini and others
Music: Thaman S
