'Double iSmart', produced by Puri Jagannadh and Charmy Kaur, was released in theatres today (August 15). In this section, we are going to review the latest box-office release.
Plot:
Ustaad 'iSmart' Shankar (Ram) is trapped by a villainous gang led by Big Bull (Sanjay Dutt), a notorious don. Big Bull's obsession is immortality. He wants to transmit his memories to Shankar, a daredevil thief.
A CBI Officer named Chandrakanth (Sayaji Shinde) intervenes to spoil Big Bull's colossal conspiracy against India. Meanwhile, Shankar's GF Jannat (Kavya Thapar) has her own mission.
Performances:
Ram Pothineni's energetic performance conceals the familiarity of his antics. He is cool in several scenes but is inadequate in most others. Kavya Thapar's presence is undone by a romantic track that is constantly unnerving.
Sanjay Dutt fails to give his character the life it anyway didn't deserve.
Ali as an eccentrically-dressed Boka is hard to sit through. Bani J as Big Bull's henchwoman plays a character who is given to mouthing words like 'Saala' and 'Naa kodukulu'. Getup Srinu as Shankar's friend is routine. Makarand Deshpande as a Neuroscientist comes across as a local gangster. Jhansi as Shankar's mother is a miscast.
Technical aspects:
The cinematography by Gianni Giannelli and Shyam K Naidu constantly attempts to create a sense of urgency or chaos. The production design has an amateurish look.
Mani Sharma's music is a mixed bag. 'Maar Muntha Chod Chinta' and 'Steppa Maar' are foot-tapping. 'Kya Lafda', 'Big Bull' are just half-decent. The editing is done by Karthika Srinivas.
Post-Mortem:
The story hinges on the 'Two bodies, one mind' concept. The villain, whose days on Earth are numbered, implants his memories in the mind of the hero.
Director Puri Jagannadh's sensibilities have reached a point of no return. Big Bull is fashioned as a dystopian monster who plots to cut India into two parts. He is the biggest Arms supplier in Asia surrounded by tattoo-heavy, goggles-sporting followers. In one scene, he says that he wants to attain immortality just so that he gets to enjoy unlimited sex. What does he want? Sex or United States of South India.
The plot is not concerned with either though. It is essentially about an Aboriginal named Boka (Ali) rehabilitating himself in Hyderabad, itching to bed city-bred women. The plot is concerned with what Shankar does when he is not describing sexy women with Qutub Minar and Burj Khalifa - dance like a drunken warlord with anyone readily available.
The romantic track is vintage Meher Ramesh-esque. Minutes after a life-threatening experience, Shankar and Jannat do romantic talk on a bed. The idea of unstable mental memories of Shankar being in a constant flutter is narrated with impunity.
Our filmmakers probably think that only two things sell on any given day: the sexualization of women and over-sentimentalization of the mother-son bond. Don't know who put this understanding into the chips of our filmmakers but there is no way of erasing the corrupted disk.
By the way, what does the RAW do when the villain is creating a havoc orchestrating a Breaking India conspiracy? Sample this: the RAW sleuth comes to know that Big Bull has landed in India. He goes there with his team. By then, Big Bull has left the port. The RAW guy shows his helplessness and goes back to his home. Because in a Puri Jagannadh film, there are memory transfer injections but not CCTVs and check posts.
Closing Remarks:
'Double iSMART' doubles down on every damn bad idea it can conceive. Double iSilly is the word.
