D for Dopidi – S for Superficial


It would have been A for Above Average if only the script had been
meticulous enough in its detailing of expression, tempo, nuances and
emotion. When four youngsters who don’t have a history of committing
even minor crimes behave as though they are consummate rowdy-sheeters
and their captives (save one worried lover boy) inexplicably try to be
comedians, you only get a film that ends up neither here nor there.

Four youngsters (Varun Sandesh, Sandeep Kishan, Naveen, Rakesh)
desperately need to bail themselves out of serious troubles in their
life. Each needs a lumpsum and this is when Varun Sandesh is
influenced by a burglary scripted by a few IT-ians somewhere, to make
the quick buck through foul means. He hatches a plan together with his
three friends, only one of whom (Sandeep Kishan) is confident, while
the other two are jittery or childishly enthusiastic (faintly
reminiscent of Ko Ante Koti’s burglars).

Swindling Narsing Yadav of a lakh of rupees, they get hold of a bomb
with the aim of looting an ATM, but a failure and a news report
inspire them to burgle a bank for a precise sum of Rs. 45 lakhs (one
of them is honest about this figure to a fault).

Once they forcibly barge into the bank, and are almost caught, we
expect some nail-biting moments but all we get to watch is unnatural
expression and superficially crafted scenes. It is not comedy when four
youngsters who are on the verge of joining the rogues gallery behave
as though they are about to be get caught by their strict fathers
while intoxicated in a pub. Talent is when you make the audience laugh
despite the characters behaving as they should.

When two burglars, who are unrelated to them, enter the scene and
Varun Sandesh springs a surprise by snatching the loot in a last
minute display of aggressiveness, we don’t see any tempo built up.
When an ACP is outside, with an overzealous media, hungry to expose the
criminals in action, watching the youngsters as if they are completely
unaware of the shame they will go through, it becomes irksome. It is
nobody’s case that scenes like Loka Muddu (Tanikella Bharani) and his
cohort narrating their quirky flashback are inappropriate but what is
needed is avoiding showing the four characters seeking to know their
past with a frivolous expression on their faces.

We have a girl who seems to see Varun Sandesh’s deviant behavior as
something as common as boozing in a Goa beach!

What redeems the film are very many good lines and some funny
sequences, which worth irrespective of the script’s serious lacunae.
The villagers confusing Pakistan’s ISI for the ISI mark on fertilizer
packets, the potshots at the media’s immature reportage of serious
incidents, the Amma-Upma parody and such ideas work fine.

Little ideas like a character getting a call from his creditor while
burgling the bank, a bombs dealer using an ambulance as his vehicle
make this movie a time pass fare.

The performances are adequate. Everybody gets an equal space and there
is symmetry. Varun and Sandeep are their usual self, while the rest of
the cast (mostly unfamiliar faces, barring Tanikella) deliver a few
laughs.

Technically, this film has nothing to write home about. The BG score
is inspired and the cinematography is OK.

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