Businessman | Movie Review

Mahesh and Puri!! Their last film broke Telugu movie records, and you expect this one to be a bigger and better movie. But due to my recent experiences, I went to watch without any expectations, and at the end of the film I walked out quite satisfied. The movie makes no sense, has no story or nothing, but thanks to the brilliant acting by Mahesh, and pretty good dialogues by Puri, Businessman is a decent watch.

Filming for the first time without his favorite actors Ali or Brahmanandam, Puri Jagannadh makes Businessman without a comedy track. Thanks to the slick screenplay, you never notice the lack of comedy though. There are highs and lows, but overall, it works. Might not be as big a hit as Pokiri, and might not run in multiplexes, but is sure to run houseful in B and C centers.

Watch it only for Mahesh and Puri. If you like neither of them, still go watch it!

(Actually, after second watch, I have a feeling it will break Pokiri’s records very easily)

Plot
The movie kicks off with the police commissioner (Nassar) declaring Mumbai to be a Mafia-free zone. Surya (Mahesh Babu) lands in the city with the intentions of becoming a don, and in his own words, to make Mumbai  beep. He takes the local goons, and the local minister Lalu (Sayaji Shinde) under his control. He makes the commissioner’s daughter Chitra (Kajal Aggarwal) fall in love with him, and later falls for her himself. The rest of the film (not story) is about Surya’s real intentions and how he turns mafia into a business.

Actors Performance
Mahes Babu is terrific as Surya. He looks uber cool and dashing. He has his way with the dialogues, and thanks to Puri, he mouths some terrific stuff. His expressions, intensity and antics are really good, and I loved his acting in the climax episode. He does create some humor (only humor in the film) as well. But I really feel that he needs to try something different from these kinds flicks. He’s one of the better actors in the industry today, and I believe that he has more potential than this.

Kajal looks great, but when it comes to acting, she sucks. But trust me, she’s way better than rest of the Telugu heroines. Nassar is really good in the role of the commissioner. Other than him, no one has any major role. Prakash Raj, Subbaraju, Sayaji Shinde are all alright. Dharmavarapu tries to create some laughter, and is ok. The girl who played Kajal’s friend (Ayesha) was really really annoying the first time around, but you kinda get used to her.

Story-Screenplay-Direction
Puri Jagannadh thanked Ramgopal Varma at the start of the film for helping him come up with the idea of Businessman. For a second there, I thought I was gonna walk out with a headache. But thankfully, Puri just uses RGV’s style of movie making. There is honestly no story to the movie, but he has a concept, and he uses it for two and half hours. Thanks to the amazingly scripted dialogues, the concept, or rather the film works. Since there is no story, the screenplay needed to be effective, and Puri makes sure that its crisp. Every scene is effectively planned, and very well shot. There was not a single boring moment in the film. The climax was a little too weak and predictive though. Direction is pretty decent. He makes Mahesh look really really good.

Other Departments
Music by Taman is good. He’s copied tunes from various films, yes, but they still work. After a really long time, I loved the theme music of a Telugu film. ‘Bhag Saale’ is impressive. The re-recording and sound effects are very good. Cinematography by Shyam K. Naidu is alright. The close up shots were canned well.  Editing by S. R. Shekhar is perfect.  Choreography by Dinesh is mediocre, and could have been way better. Production values by R.R. Movie Makers are good.

My only problem with the movie was the censoring. I mean, since when did cleavages or bikini shots get blurred in a movie?? Forget cleavages, even the thigh of the item girl was blurred. Same thing with the dialogues. When the movie is given ‘A’ rating, I don’t see a point for the censor board in being so harsh. Not that I want to see stuff or hear shitty dialogues, but hope that it doesn’t become a trend.