Comedian-turned-actor Saptagiri has been trying to break into the commercial mould and choosing stories blended with success formula – humour, action and sentiment. After delivering average grossers like Saptagiri Express and Saptagiri LLB, he has once again resorted to the same formula in his Friday’s release Vajra Kavachadhara Govinda (VKG).
At a time when comedy heroes like Allari Naresh, Sunil and Srinivas Reddy are struggling to redeem their careers, director Arun Pawar, who seems to be in a goofball mode, has tried to bring Saptagiri to the forefront with a wafer-thin storyline which doesn’t offer anything to shout about.
Vajra Kavachadhara Govinda revolves around Govind (Saptagiri), a petty thief, who is looked up as the only saviour for his ‘cancer village’, Somala. He gets sucked into a treasure hunt with a gang to earn quick bucks. In a bid to get that, he has to get into a temple by impressing the locals and in the process, he meets Tripura Sundari (Vaibhavi Joshi), a tomboyish girl who likes kickboxing and as expected, they end up falling for each other. The director takes forever to set up its plot and wastes too much time establishing its characters, thereby never letting you invested in the narrative. Like most of the filmmakers who treat the intermission as an excuse to shift gears completely, Arun Pawar too comes up with a twist which was looking quite promising for the second hour. But, as the second hour kicks in, you can’t help feeling underwhelmed and a tad cheated too.
The elements that don’t work in VKG’s favour are jarring songs, unrealistic approach of the premise of the story, melodrama, treatment and Saptagiri’s heroism. These were surely difficult to digest. Saptagiri’s performance looks over-the-top and he overacted at his best. Vaibhavi Joshi has got a limited screen presence and her presence is hard to ignore. To say the least, VKG is a bland, boring and unintentionally amusing saga that plods on for over 140-minutes. You can give it a miss!
Movie: Vajra Kavachadhara Govinda Cast: Saptagiri, Vaibhavi Joshi Director: Arun Pawar |