Remake of a great film at poor standard

Remaking of a film in some other languages will always draw comparisons and ‘Eenadu’ is not an exception to it. It is well aware that this Kamal Hassan-Venkatesh starrer is the remake of a successful Bollywood film ‘A Wednesday’. Chakri Tholeti, who had directed the film, copied the film bit by bit. In order to prove that he made certain changes in the script, he had introduced Government Chief Secretary character. But for Venkatesh’s performance, the film failed to please the Telugu audiences. The film had no mass elements that could pull the crowds to the theatres, while the class audiences, most of whom already watched the Hindi original, will naturally draw comparisons and understand that Kamal was wasted in the character and he is in no way proved a good replacement for Naseeruddin Shah.

Eeshwar Prasad (Venkatesh) is the commissioner of police. One day he gets a phone call from an anonymous caller (Kamal Hassan) that he had placed five explosives at different places. He could not treat as a prank call and starts exercise to find out the explosives. In order to prove that he had placed the bomb, the caller tells Eeshwar Prasad that he had kept one bomb in a police station in his jurisdiction itself. So the commissioner sends Gautham Reddy (Bharat Reddy) to trace the bomb. The bomb disposal squad, dog squad and other personnel search for the bomb and find it in Lakdi Ka Pul police station. The caller also tells the police on how to defuse that bomb. So the exercise completes peacefully. Believing that the caller is not lying, Eeshwar Prasad asks the caller, who called him again about his demands. However, that caller did not demand any ransom, but asks the police to hand him over four terrorists, who planted bombs and created terror in the country in general and in Hyderabad in particular.

As per his demands, the police bring all the four terrorists to hand them over to that caller. That caller tells the commissioner to send the four terrorists to the old Begumpet airport. Eeshwar Prasad sends two of his associates Gautham Reddy and Arif (Ganesh Venkataraman) along with the terrorists along with speaker phone mobiles. After confirming that all the four reached the Begumpet airport as was suggested, the caller tells the escorting cops to send them to the jeep which was kept there for them. However, Arif leaves three of the terrorists and keeps one with him, as he feared that the caller may not reveal the places where the explosives were placed. Soon, the three go to the jeep and they get a call in a mobile kept there. The moment they switched on the mobile, the jeep gets blasted by a timer. However, the caller comes to know that Arif had kept one more terrorist with him instead of sending him to the jeep. So the caller demands to kill him and then only he would reveal the secret about the bombs. Following the commissioner’s instructions, Arif kills the terrorist whom he kept as hostage and Gautham Reddy shoots Arif on his shoulder to prove as an evidence that the terrorists were killed as they tried to attack the accompanying officers.

Then, the caller reveals that he had not kept any explosives anywhere and it was all a plan to kill those terrorists. After the commissioner insists to reveal the caller’s identity, he simply answers that he is a common man and it has become so easy to purchase explosives and to plant bombs easily even for him. Eeswara Prasad who could identify the place from where the caller is making calls, rush to the spot and finds the caller. However, he too feigns ignorance, as that common man proved that it is very easy to keep the police on tenterhooks with the help of phones and explosives and he did the right job as punishing those terrorists through legal process would not serve any purpose.

PLUS:

The performance of Venkatesh as a dutiful cop is the highlight of the movie. He maintained the seriousness all through the film without giving any scope for even a smile. At the same time, the change in the movement of the film with the incorporation of Government Chief Secretary’s role depicts the ego clashes between IAS and IPS officers. Among others, Bharat Reddy and Ganesh Venkatraman excelled in the roles of tough cops. Both of them won the hearts of the audiences. Though the film is stated to be a multi-starrer with a great artiste like Kamal Hassan portraying an important role, Venkatesh’s role proved equally important and stole the limelight.

MINUS:

The Telugu version of the film, for those who watched the original Bollywood hit ‘A Wednesday’, appears to be a carbon copy of the original. Unfortunately, each and every scene in the film were totally copied. As a result, the remake lacked novelty. Another drawback in the film is that Kamal Hassan’s body language failed to reach the expectations of the audiences. Though he dubbed his voice on his own, the punch is too low and sounds not so appealing. Likewise, the director unnecessarily made changes to the script by introducing the chief secretary’s character. Even without Lakshmi’s character the film could run smoothly. The audiences could not find a proper end to Poonam Kaur’s role. The conversation between her and Bharat Reddy evoked a little comedy in this serious film.

REMARKS:

Music by Shruti Hassan is average and the re-recording is not up to the mark. There are no songs in this film as the subject is quite serious. There is one background playback song which is just okay. Camera by Manoj Soni is okay though consistency in lighting is missing in some scenes. Dialogues by Neelakanta are also average and appeared almost true translation from the original. Editing is okay. Direction by Chakri Tholeti is awful as he did not use his mind totally and concentrated on copying the original. The scenes in which he kept his brain proved useless and remained namesake. But for Venkatesh’s performance, the film is not so interesting.

Cast: Kamal Hassan, Venkatesh, Bharat Reddy, Ganesh, Poonam Kaur, Lakshmi, Sivannarayana and others are in the cast.

Credits: Dialogues – Neelakanta, Music – Shruti Hassan, Cinematography – Manoj Soni, Editing – Bhagat, Producers – Kamal Hassan, Chandra Hasan and Rony Screw Wala, Screenplay and direction – Chakri Tholeti.

Banner: Raj Kamal Films International and UTV Motion Pictures.

Released on: September 18, 2009