- Date of Release: 10 January 2025
- Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
- Language: Telugu
- Watch On: Theatres Only
Game Changer
Introduction
Virat Kohli has always been a great batsman and a great servant to Indian cricket. There were moments wherein he single-handedly won India matches and was regarded as the master of run-chases. He was in the truest sense a ‘Game Changer’ who made his bat to the talking. Sadly, his form has dipped so badly (particularly in Test cricket and at the time of penning this review), that even his most staunch fans like me are now skeptical about his next peak. In many ways, Shankar’s journey has been a similar one – once a prolific director who brought about the use of technology on celluloid and was much appreciated for his treatment of themes, has just produced his second consecutive ‘dud’ to make even the most staunch fans of him worried. The case in point is his new Telugu film Game Changer that is nothing but a reel template film that is quite honestly embarrassing to say the least. Shankar’s strokes are so broad that they come across as silly, even as the protagonist named Ram (Ram Charan) is hell bent on iradicating corruption, first as an IAS to briefly becoming the CM of the state for an hour to randomly transforming into an Election Commission. The issue isn’t that Shankar’s filmmaking style has changed – the issue is the opposite, Shankar’s filmmaking style HASN’T changed and is looking even more silly when one views the current political climate and its relation with the social media. Clearly, when India has transformed from a political standpoint, this little ‘delulu’ product seems like a dated fruit!
Story & Screenplay
The coherence in Game Changer is non-existential while the emphasis being on reels to garner the montages. It all begins when a potential bridge collapse hospitalizes the character of the CM only for his potential death to be celebrated by his two sons, until it refuses to arrive. Elsewhere, a random montage sequence originates in the middle of nowhere wherein the character of Ram playing an IAS is freshly on his way to his posting, till he is randomly attacked by his rival from college. But boom! Guess what, Ram is a part-time superhero, beating the goons to pulp in a jiffy before snitching their helicopter ride. Meet Ram – a no-nonsense district magistrate (to begin with), who is a distant cousin of Shivaji Rao in Nayak (2001), given his antics. So when he wants to punish the greedy builder, he blasts the mall in front of it, just like stirring a 2-minute maggi, when he wants to suspend the greedy – bang! no problem, he calls for a typewriter to type his suspension letter. And how do you showcase his anger management issues? Simple, you randomly cut the movie to a flashback while mistakenly beating his girlfriend’s father for eve-teasing and winning her over the very next moment, even as an anger meter appears out of nowhere! You get the gist!
I have a huge problem with dramas that choose not to link the scenes while casually bringing out the millenial lingo of reels. It is just lazy writing that is haphazardly put together here wherein everything, and I mean everything feels superficial. To give you a perspective, picture this – the protagonist fires a bunch of bad ministers with the flick of a finger, only to see them randomly getting sucked into the sky. Yes, the argument is that this is a mass commercial entertainer and so, no rules apply here – but you have got to ask yourself, can the bar of entertainment be this low? Even the love angle is used hilariously as a filler in a movie that is collectively a filler too – a random scene involves Deepika’s(Kiara Advani) ‘Pallu’ randomly dropping, only for her assets to be visible and for the protagonist to freeze. Wait, the scene doesn’t end there – while she fixes her ‘pallu’, the focus shifts to her naval, only for the protagonist to freeze again before aspiring to ‘half-marry’ her (read : s*x), before a ‘culture’ template randomly appears between them. I mean what the actual f**k!
The main plot-point of pitting Ram with Bobbili Mopidevi (SJ Suryah) is also unintentionally funny. It is a cat and mouse game, similar to Tom and Jerry wherein both form a game of one-upmanship. The political game is superficial even as Ram briefly gets the throne after the latter kills his father, while aspiring for the throne himself. This forces a needless flashback that is so poorly integrated in the plot that it actually made me chuckle. This cannot even classify for an outlandish bout of fun (that Badass Ravikumar promises to be), it is just silly and trashy with no redemption whatsoever. Remember Shankar’s Nayak wherein the face-off between two individuals – one powerful and the other an underdog was actually nuanced because the viewers were aware of the dangers of the system. But the fundamental mistake of treating the protagonist as a superhero leads to a dismal downfall here – if the punches and the counter-punches, both literally and otherwise are a part of the same breath, then it is a huge problem because you are never emotionally connected to either of the chatacters.
This is true, even when the cards flip and Ram randomly turns into an Election Commissioner tasked to conduct an election against the powerful CM who is also his nemesis. It is ridiculous how simplified the conflict is left to be – there are no mind-games, just more of ‘you-did-this-but-wait-till-you-see-that’, even as the characters want you to believe that Ram’s antics are unpredictable (this is repeated on more than 3 occassions). Well, nothing is unpredictable about this mess, not even the final face-off that conveniently allows the protagonist to win through a revelation. But not before a personal loss that he suffers and quickly moves on from. After all, it is the reel culture – how else would you represent grief and happiness in a matter of seconds? The screenplay is such a slog that it made me want to ‘change’ this (video) ‘game’.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are borderline cringe even as it employs the overtly aggressive route of screaming and shouting to denote anger and intimidation. It is simply laughable at a few places, not because it intended to, but more because how silly and childish the lines were. The music by Thaman is solid and I actually found myself grooving to a couple of the songs which by the way, stall the narrative (and thankfully so). The BGM uses a central theme which was good news and you could see some thought going into elevating the otherwise poorly sketched scenes. The cinematography overtly uses the VFX template and in a way, distances you from the drama. Even the editing is so poor that it gave me an impression of watching a reel within a reel which also seemed to be poorly edited. Director Shankar has officially lost his mojo given his last film Indian 2 and now Game Changer (yes, Indian 3 will be more of the same by the looks of it). A director who was once regarded as a genius has refused to evolve his filmmaking style which is now nothing short of a mockery. The reel-induced style of filmmaking is plain bad and that is putting it in a good way. It is time to go back to the drawing board and analyze and restart, because honestly, this brand of filmmaking is going nowhere!
Performances
The performances are plain average with the actors either going overboard or simply sleep-walking through the drama. Sunil as ‘Side’ Satyam tries really hard to be funny in a character that just walks sideways, but unsuccessfully so. Jayaram as Munimanikyam hams and hams and hams throughout his role. Anjali as Parvathy was the only character that felt understated but she had hardly anything to do apart from letting out blank stares. Kiara Advani as Deepika is used only as an eye-candy which is such a huge disservice to her talent. SJ Suryah is a great actor but he woefully goes overboard with his performance here in the character of Mopidevi. It was a rare miss from a talented actor. Ram Charan in his dual roles of Appanna and Ram is rampant and pretty good here. Yes, he does try to make the proceedings work but there is only so much an actor can do to elevate the film. Let me put it this way – even a rampant Ram Charan cannot save this mess (and I don’t give two hoots of how much the film is collecting, it still remains bad).
Conclusion
Game Changer doesn’t change anything for Shankar and his filmmaking style. It still remains a reels-induced (and paracetamol-induced) version of Nayak (144p) which is silly in a film that is nothing short of a slog (and a headache)! Available in a theatre near you.
