Pushpa Telugu Movie 2022 : sukumar is one of my favorite directors his films are commercial but his heroes are mostly anti-heroes who are wired differently his stories have wonderful arcs and the heroes have very evident flaws both physical and psychological no matter who the star in his films are it is the story that takes center stage sukumar films.
Allu arjun pushpa : Pushpa written and directed by sukumar starring aloo arjun rashmika mandana sunil and fahad fassel Pushpa raj is a daily wage laborer who grows up as a child born out of wedlock but he street smart and ingenuous he gets involved in the illegal smuggling of red sandalwood.
in the seisha chalam forest area and like the title suggests rises to the top of the game facing challenges from syndicates that export red sandalwood.
all over the world pushpa boasts of an enviable cast and crew music by dsp and stunts by ram lakshman and peter hain then there is the cinematography by cinematographer miroslo brozek pushpa.
also has an impressive supporting cast sunil shines as the dawn of the smuggling market as does ajay ghosh but the pleasant surprise in the film is jagdish who plays pushpa’s friend.
keshava who nails the diction and garners all the laughs that the film has to offer and most importantly there is red sandalwood itself red sandalwood has been marked as an endangered species it is treasured around the world but only grows in forest tracts of andhra pradesh.
it takes about 30 years to harvest and is the most smuggled item in andhra pradesh you can legally grow red sandalwood but it is illegal to cut down the tree.
but the film only touches upon these unique aspects of red sandalwood very briefly which is probably understandable as the film presents itself as a star vehicle for alluv arjun unfortunately the story which is traditionally sukumar.
strength seems to falter with pushback take the protagonist for example right from the first frame he’s a champion rarely facing defeat he gets out of situations with ease he is a cool odo who is always cool he is omnipresent only potent omniscient so it’s not surprising that the first car he buys is a maruti suzuki omni.
technically this is sukumar’s best work miroslav brozak’s camera work is solid as is the production design by s ramakrishna and monica nigotri who managed to recreate seisha chalam of the 90s it is commendable that they hit the spot without showing a gold spot but it is push past spacing that lets the film.
down stretching to three hours the film has a litany of antagonists who are conveniently disposed of when the script needs them to be disposed of and how pushpa overcomes them one after the other is not particularly clever some of the action sequences do stand out take the one for example where pushpa has to dispose of tons of sandalwood .
before a police raid and another when he faces groups of villains blindfolded but the rest of the scenes seem like extended slo-mo montages along with dsp’s background score.
which instead of being mind-blowing seems to be ear drum shattering the film also required solid editing but these are technical aspects at a very basic level there is no emotional connection with the film and its characters fahad fassel whose role was much hyped seems to be reserved for the upcoming sequel.
rashmika mandana manages to stand out in the role of the bubbly love interest however while sukumar’s films are mostly classy the writing of her character seems to be a coming of cleavage role.
that seems unnecessary and uncomfortable in a few portions aloo arjun is immensely watchable in the film and the sole reason why you are willing to overlook the gaps in the film’s plot and its spacing my only wish was that the director gave him more scope to breathe to emote to live the role and to shine full meals.
red sandalwood is exotic and beautiful but is not fragrant as the usual sandalwood is the same could be said about sukumar’s pushpa it looks great but it doesn’t have sukumar’s touch it does fan service of the highest order and if a cinematic experience is what you crave for it delivers on that ground.