'Power Star' started premiering on RGV World Theatre at 11 am on July 25. Written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma, it also has the controversial director in an important role. Here is our review of the spoof comedy.
Story
Prawan Kalyan finds himself in an embarrassing situation soon after his Mana Sena Party eats the humble pie in elections. Just as he tries to grapple with the shocking performance of himself and his party, all that he gets to listen is unsolicited advice to quit politics. His elder brother (who doesn't get a name but who looks just like Chiranjeevi) demeans Prawan and asks him to call it quits just like he did after the 2009 elections despite winning 18% vote share. A filmmaker who looks like Trivikram Srinivas asks him to come back to movies so that his fans get back their enthusiasm once again.
Amidst this, Prawan himself is not sure what to do next. Out of nowhere, RGV walks into his house and gives him some advice. What is the advice? Will Prawan now quit politics?
Performances
Essentially, this web-film is led by unfamiliar faces. Kudos to RGV for extracting the best from the lead man, whose hand gestures and mannerisms are kosher. He imitates Pawan Kalyan to the hilt. The next best actor in 'Power Star' has to be RGV himself. If you can see through his intentions in delivering the ingenuine monologue, you will surely endorse his acting skills. Mahesh Kathi's presence doesn't serve any purpose. The rest of them do a decent job.
Technical aspects
Music by DSR may not be original. But, at least, there is nothing chaotic or loud about it. For a change, RGV has given us the BGM that we can tolerate. Joshi's cinematography is a plus.
Plus Points
Spoofing real-life characters.
Political conversations that everyone can understand.
The closing moments.
Minus Points
Lack of drama. The RGV-conceived 'Lakshmi's NTR' was much better in this respect. No matter what is the genre or medium, there has to be scope for drama if your product has to find an audience.
Unnecessary elements like Mahesh Kathi interviewing Prawan and the latter asking a cameraman whose fan he is.
Lack of an effort to offer something to serious political enthusiasts.
Obsession with belittling Prawan Kalyan as someone who has married thrice.
One-note screenplay.
Heavy flavour of the kind of satires we find on Telugu news media.
Analysis
'Power Star' turns out to be a longer version of its trailer. Barring the last 10 minutes of this 37-minute-long web-film, everything was already seen in the trailer. The director should have avoided releasing that one song, 'Gaddi Thintava', at least.
RGV randomly mouths the names of philosophers like Kant and Ayn Rand in the film. He mentions the names of a couple of philosophical books, too. The biggest twist comes when RGV condemns Gaju Ravi (none other than Ravi Teja, the co-writer of Pawan's 'ISM') for Prawan's political immaturity. This is absurd at many levels. On what basis does RGV believe that Pawan takes what he and Ravi Teja wrote in 'ISM' seriously? No politician worth his salt will stick to doctrines and theory. Pawan has allied with BSP and the Left and the BJP in a matter of a few months. And the idealogue Ravi Teja is not even in public memory. But RGV thinks blaming Ravi Teja makes sense!
