Bro(Telugu)
Rating: ***
Films about afterlife like Jerry Zucker’s Ghost from Hollywood or Jhuk Gaya Aasman and Lok Parlok in Hindi, take the satirical route.And why not? If we can laugh at death we can conquer the fear of dying.
The unusual aspect ,or maybe not so unusual, is Pawan Kalyan being cast a God of time.Pawan is omnipresent in the narrative although the script is not really about him. It is about Sai Dharam Tej’s cranky character Mark who has a pretty screwed-up notion of selfworth, until a car crash lands him on the doorstep of the God Of Time, Titan , if you please(tieup with the watch company?).
Titan and Mark team up to play what could possibly be a fresh if not altogether fruitful alliance between Death and the Dead…or, almost dead.Life doesn’t give second chances. But Death does, at least in this tall tale which is charming in parts, exasperating in other parts .
The talented Tamil actor Samuthirakani who played God in the Tamil version of this fim, directs Bro. Samuthirakani’s storytelling is a fine blend of star adulation and fantasy narration. Pawan Kalyan’s progressively political screen-image is cleverly fastened to a plot that gives him ample opportunity to posture and preen and make slanted political references.He does it all with a disarming equipoise.
Sai Tej sportingly plays along. Bro seems to be fun for the two actors.Their upbeat mood seeps down to the audience, giving the endproduct a hue of hectic hilarity in ways that are perhaps not completely comprehensible to the actors, many of whom come and contributing something to the plot, though no one is sure what.
Pawan Kalyan shares almost every frame with Sai Tej. His smug detachment from the drama is at times effective, though not always. The director plays Pawan’s old hit songs to create a sense of renewed nostalgia. This musical homage to Pawan Kalyan’s stardom doesn’t secrete the same nostalgia value as Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani where old songs punctuated the screenplay and carried the story forward.
Pawan Kalyan’s hit songs in Bro are just there. Take ‘em or leave ‘em. He is most effective when silent:a state of being that the screenplay doesn’t favour. Sai Tej , on the other hand, is very comfortable with volubility.
These two make a decent pair until they break into some awful leg-shaking expeditions which look like out-takes from Honey Singh’s music videos. As for the family drama, it is partially effective especially the theme of ‘How well Do You Know Your Family?’
Sadly, life is not an episode of KBC .And Pawan Kalyan is no Amitabh Bachchan.