Film: Temper
Cast: NTR Jr, Kajal Aggarwal
Director: Puri Jagannadh
Rating: 2 stars
No matter what happens, one way or the other, the police will always protect you -- that is the basic premise of Puri Jagannadh’s Temper. The film is a complete entertainer and revolves around its lead actor NTR Junior. An orphan boy dreams of becoming a cop, joins the force, falls in love with a girl at first sight and single-handedly bashes up goons. Heard this plot before?
Temper doesn’t offer anything much different from the usual commercial entertainers that the Telugu film industry churns out on a regular basis. However, the film is tailor-made for fans of NTR and has an overall mass appeal.
Daya (NTR Jr), an orphan boy who dreams of becoming a police officer, somehow buys himself a degree and manages to join the force. Corrupt to the core, Daya uses his uniform to take money from rowdies at will. Impressed by his corrupt reputation, criminal Valther Vasu (Prakash Raj) gets him transferred to Vizag with the help of a minister, so that he could have a cop on his side. Daya soon joins hands with Valther and continues his corrupt ways. He soon meets Shanvi (Kajal Aggarwal) and falls in love with her. Shanvi reciprocates and his love for her soon comes in the way of his friendship with Valther. Even as he tries to maintain both, a shocking incident changes it all and transforms him completely. His total shift from a corrupt to an honest cop and his battle against rapists and murderers makes for the rest of the story.
Puri Jaggannadh sticks to the tried and tested formula and doesn’t experiment much with the film. While Temper addresses clear loopholes in our judiciary system, it has quite a few glaring flaws. On one hand, NTR fights for women’s rights and on the other hand he refers to his love interest Kajal Aggarwal as his ‘music system’, which is in bad taste. There are also plenty of unnecessary scenes forced into the narrative. Several comedy scenes are forced upon the audience which are stale and unfunny. The film only picks pace in the second half after a rather ordinary first half.
Shyama K Naidu does a fine job with the film’s cinematography, while Anoop Rubens music is decent. Background score by Mani Sharma is also quite effective. However, the film’s editing is poor and the pace and intensity keeps wavering, much to the viewers’ chagrin.
Temper is an NTR Jr film through and through, and the actor puts in a good performance. While he’s slightly over-the-top and unconvincing as the corrupt cop, he looks the part as the honest officer fighting for justice.
The only blemish is the fact that he’s shouting inexplicably for half the film which is irritating and makes the viewers squirm. Kajal Aggarwal is reduced to an inconsequential role and is seen only in songs and a few scenes here and there. Prakash Raj know for his bad guy image but the film’s finest performance comes from Posani Krishna Murali, who puts in a remarkable performance as an honest cop working under NTR.
Overall, Temper is a recycled version of the same old success formula in Tollywood and doesn’t really surprise the audience or make them think. However, it can be a treat for NTR Jr fans, thanks to its dialogues and overall mass appeal. Watch it only if you’re a die-hard fan.