There are two kinds of characters in Mukunda. There’s this lot that only does the talking and stamps its authority. There’s another group, the ‘youth’ as we call it, with all the adrenaline rush that acts and speaks more conservatively. Mukunda, thereby never rises above a ‘black-and-white’ depiction of a namesake political scenario, excusing itself to be a family entertainer in the process and switching between both sides whenever necessary. The film looks like the very collage it suggests, half borrowed from Mani Ratnam’s subplot in Yuva and polishing it, rather softening it with his Bapu-like touches from Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu. All the rest remain fillers, the painted-cardboard pieces struggling to unite as a single chunk.
Sreekanth Addala makes a vain attempt to change gears this time around while handling a newcomer vehicle. He wants to make his mark felt desperately by leaving behind his signature touches that we can trace from his earlier works. We see a character and know exactly, how they are to behave in the times to come. This isn’t supposed to be a bane altogether, as there’s some consistency floating around.
The plot is thrown away early. No issues sir. But, do you make us curious of how it exactly is supposed to unfold? Wait, there’s some symbolism in store as well. The barriers between the old and the new wave that we really need to be spoon-fed come in the form of road-crossings, colour-tones, party-flags (onions and flights ?) and volley-ball courts. There’s a half-baked abstract character through Prakash Raj, like Amitabh Bachchan in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, doing the talks on behalf of us. But, this promise is wasted as well. If we complain of the visuals dominating the scene here, we’re missing the picture. The hero’s named Mukunda, his scarecrow friend’s named Arjun and the former’s lady love? There we go, she is referred to as a Gopika in a song. That’s the best we can ask for knowing more about the equations here.
While there’s no denying that silence can indeed be a beautiful tool to convey an emotion, especially in cinema, they can’t be an excuse for shortage of words. That’s the exact problem in the romance here. It comes off as an interesting idea to begin with, just like destiny giving them unforced opportunities to meet. As this track moves on, even when Varun Tej and Pooja Hegde don’t talk or rather just ‘see’ each other, the lack of communication hurts. There’s so much chaste Telugu spoken by Rao Ramesh and Prakash Raj that it feels like the writers didn’t find time to write lines for them.
When tweaking old scripts or universal ideas and modulating them according to your sensibilities, a director is giving away his magic, if his touches seem obvious. The group-conversations, the marriages, the old-modern conflict were essences that were pinned together beautifully in Sreekanth Addala’s earlier films. They weren’t classics and by far, looked at least honest attempts. Varun Tej makes a confident start but needs time to come out of his shell. There’s a solid cast in Mukunda bringing together Nassar, Prakash Raj and Rao Ramesh on the same frame, all for a lost cause. The visuals are larger than life, their ideas aren’t.
Two stars
Review by Srivathsan N. First published in Cinegoer.net