Rating: 0 stars
After nearly destroying Vijay Devarakonda’s career in Liger, one thought the worst was behind director Puri Jagannadh. He surprises us by plunging deeper into the cesspool of mediocrity in his new release Double iSmart which is to the Independence Day what the hangman’s noose must been to the freedom fighter.
It is believed that that Devarakonda’s stammer did Liger in. If we look for a reason as to why Double iSmart doesn’t work as…well, as anything, it would have to be Sanjay Dutt who plays the archvillain named, hold your breath, Big Bull , with an extra dose of ennui, even when Big Bull is told by a doctor that he could attain immortality if he transfers his braincells to another human being.
While the doctor should be debarred from practice with immediate actor, Puri who wrote and directed this fantasy drivel should also be debarred from making film for at least the next ten years.
Double iSmart is supposedly a spiritual sequel to iSmart Shankar. Nothing spiritual about this bore of an encore Ram Pothineni and Sanjay Dutt (in his Telugu debut) both possess panther-like personalities. Puri cages them both in a screenplay that is as stifling as it is unproductive.
Kitsch is permissible, even welcome, if it is lively and entertaining. Driven by drivel, this braindead garbage about brain transfer is funny for all the wrong reasons. Puri’s puerile plot takes itself dead seriously, and wants us to do the same.We have no reason to do so.
The Dutt-Pothineni face-offs should have been the main attraction. Instead they are shot to a completely offkey choreography and a background score that constantly reminds us why the villain in called Big Bull.
Boorish and compromised, Double iSmart is a career upset for Pothineni who has a pleasing screen presence. But the lines given to pump up his machismo reek of sexism. He treats his ladylove like (Kavya Thapar) as though doing her a favour by wooing her.
The comedy track was not needed. This film is funny enough without trying. Puri should take a long vacation away from filmmaking. His mind is not working as it should. Perhaps the Big Bull kind of brain exchange may help.