'Thank You' has failed to make the grade. Its story-telling has not tugged at the heartstrings. Nor has it appealed to the rom-comish sensibilities of the audience. While its story is riddled with a number of flaws, the most fundamental among them is explained here.
After a life-altering incident some half an hour into the movie, Abhiram (Naga Chaitanya) becomes inward-looking. This is when his 'Manassakshi' appears in front of his eyes. This 'Manassakshi' looks exactly like Abhiram. He starts giving him sermons and advises him to thank the important people he has met in his life since he was 16.
Blunder No. 1:
The alter-ego element is outdated, as we noted in our review. Once this 'Manassakshi' enters the story, its purpose remains stagnant. Moreover, its language is dull and plain. There is no surprising turn because the plot device is conventional.
There is a psychology behind this alter-ego element. Naga Chaitanya is a Telugu film actor. He can't be shown to be taking moral lessons from the heroine or some other character throughout the film. That's why his inner self is shown to take manifestation so that Naga Chaitanya learns from Naga Chaitanya and not from some other actor in the film. Some things never change in Tollywood.
Blunder No. 2:
After the disastrous run of 'Agnyaathavaasi, Trivikram observed that the film couldn't elicit the audience's emotional connection with its content for the reason that it told the story of multi-millionaires and not of a common man. In 'Thank You', Abhiram is a world-renowned CEO. Couldn't he have been, for example, a software engineer working for an MNC in Hyderabad, someone we can relate to? Don't salaried professionals, for example, become arrogant and self-centric? Don't they have 'I, me, myself' attitude and treat others as dirt?
Why don't our writers think up such protagonists? There is a psychology behind this as well. Tollywood writers/directors enjoy showing millionaires as insensitive, crass, and morally corrupted people. Even NRIs have started to be shown in this way. That's why Indians who move to the US are insensitive sons and money-minded individuals in our movies. Therefore, is it any surprise that Abhirams in our movies are always going to be millionaires? They are never us, or our neighbours. Because some things are never going to change in Telugu cinema.
