'Inttelligent' movie review: Not so Intelligent!
Inttelligent
Cast: Sai Dharam Tej, Lavanya Tripathi, Nasser, Aashish Vidyarthi, Sayaji Shinde
Director: VV Vinayak
Rating: 1 and a half stars
If you have watched VV Vinayak’s previous works, you would see this as the least impressive film of his but if you have closely analysed his films, you will say this is just a cocktail of all his former films. At the time, moviegoers are anticipating and absorbing ‘Inttelligent’ cinema, the movie ‘Inttelligent’ looks out of place and a total put off. If we have to describe this movie in a sentence, then it is a concoction of Robinhood hero, one honest businessman, one bhai, one corrupt politician, one sincere police officer, hero helping the poor, friends of hero for comedy, four songs in exotic locale, mom sentiment and at last one heroine, who is there just for heck of it. Don’t these characters look archaic? So is the story.
Sai Dharam Tej as Sai Dharam Tej is an academic topper, Karate champion, NCC shooting victor, extremely pragmatic and of course, Intelligent who becomes a software professional and creates an app that can help the poor. His education is funded by Nasser, founder of a software company and eventually, he ends up working for the same company, duh! Well, he is a so loyal that he rejects other tempting offers. Tej encounters Posani Krishna Murali (in his usual role). Any guesses?
A dumb coward man masquerading as a local goon. Tej, who is mostly found having fun with his friends than working inside office meets Sandhya (Lavanya Tripati) on the road and proposes her. No.. it isn’t love at first sight! He wants to show his friends, how a proposal is done. Made any sense? Wait for more. Lavanya’s introduction is as cliched as the storyline. First, the camera focuses on her lips, then the nose, then eyes, then face and then a slow-motion hair-flip moment.
Of course, she is pissed with his behaviour. They meet again in an apparel store, where Tej insists her to try a dress, which his friend wants to buy for his girlfriend. She calls the police. The cop takes him to his house instead of a police station. Vidyullekha Raman plays the daughter of the policeman. Body-shaming is subtly glorified, but it is okay, who cares! Tej learns at Lavanya is Nasser’s daughter. So, technically she is his potential boss. So, don’t worry, the heroine is just shown as boss of the company, after her dad dies but not shown doing any work of a boss. Here is where the mafia is established.
A Bhai from Malaysia monitoring and guiding his little brother and his confidantes on drug dealing, land grabbing, rapes, murders and everything a reel-life bhai should be doing. The tyranny of Bhai involves snatching Nasser’s company. Tej aka Robinhood tries to save his boss but ends up losing Nasser to Bhai. Dharam Tej becomes Dharma Bhai and starts helping all the poor in the state and attracts a huge following for his noble work. From here, it is all about how Dharma Bhai kills the incorrigible mafia Bhai and proves himself to be a hero. Ashish Vidyarthi and Sayaji Shinde play the sincere cops.
This run-of-the-mill story has songs placed during the most inappropriate and unwanted moments. Chamaku Chamaku Cham from Kondaveeti Donga is the only catchy song. Dharam Tej’s dance moves are impressive but it would have been better if he had a distinctiveness. It felt like he was constantly trying to emulate both his maternal uncles Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan.
Bottom line: Please leave your intelligence outside the movie hall and watch. Do not dare to carry your brain along.
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purnima@newindianexpress.com @iyer_purnima