Eenadu – Review

There is a serious criticism in Tollywood that multi-starrers are not coming up now-a-days unlike earlier days, when stalwarts like NTR, ANR, Krishna, Krishnamraju and others used to act together in different films. Eenadu has come up on the Telugu screen giving a fitting reply to this criticism with Kamal Hassan and Venkatesh playing almost equally important roles. Unfortunately, there are no combination scenes with both of them and both of them appear on screen only during the climax for one shot.

Commissioner of Police Eeshwar Prasad (Venkatesh) gets a phone call from an anonymous caller (Kamal Hassan) about some explosives planted in different places. Without ruling out the call as a prank in the wake of bomb blasts in Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat, Eeshwar Prasad immediately informs the chief secretary (Lakshmi) to the government and summons her to his office, with a plea not to search for protocol. After she reaches his office, he explains the situation to her and takes permission to handle the situation.

The caller demands the release of four terrorists and in order to prove that he has planted bombs, he gives a hint to the police that a bomb is kept in Lakdi-ka-Pul police station. The bomb disposal squad rushes to the place and is in a confusing state on how to defuse it. The caller himself reveals the way to defuse the bomb. Later, he narrates his demand to release four hardcore terrorists from jail. As per his demand, the four terrorists are taken to Begumpet airport. Two police officers Gautham Reddy (Bharat Reddy) and Arif (Ganesh Venkataraman) accompany the terrorists.

On learning that the group has reached the spot, the caller wants to send them to a jeep waiting for them. However, Arif keeps one of the terrorists as hostage with a view to extract the information about the explosives from the caller. But the caller insists to kill that terrorists. With no option left, the commissioner orders to kill that terrorist. Did the police get any clue about the anonymous caller? Why did the caller demand the release of the terrorists? Did they get freedom? What happened to the terrorist who was kept as hostage by the escort police officer? Was the commissioner able to catch the caller? Did he really keep bombs and terrorize the people? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

PERFORMANCE:

Venkatesh has stolen the limelight with his excellent performance and has made the audiences remember his famed police story Gharshana. His physique, body language, dress code everything perfectly suits the role. Moreover, he has given an exemplary performance as a sincere police officer, who is very serious in handling a tough situation. His stylish performance in ordering his subordinates make the audiences give a wide applause. Similarly, the other police officers Bharat Reddy and Ganesh Venkataraman too have done a great job. While Bharat Reddy"s character has a slight mix of comedy, by talking to his wife who is going to her mother"s place, like any other ordinary family man, Ganesh Venkataraman has shown his excellence as a Task Force cop, who can handle any situation just with his looks and behaviour. The way in which he gets the confession from a goon who supplies the RDX material to the unknown caller is fantastic. Kamal Hassan, however, has failed to reach the expectations with his average performance. In fact, he could not show the intensity of his character and appeared too casual.

TECHNICAL:

Debutant music director Shruti Hassan has shown an average performance. The re-recording is relatively poor in taste and there are no songs, thanks to the serious subject. There is a playback song which has been tuned well. Cinematography by Manoj Soni is just above average. Most of the film has been shot with Red Eye camera. Neelakanta who has penned dialogues for the film is not so impressive and they appear to be true translation of the original. Editing part is okay. Direction by Chakri Tholeti is not that good as he has not used his mind totally and has concentrated on copying the original. But for Venkatesh"s performance, the film is not so interesting.

ANALYSIS:

Remaking of a film in other languages will always draw comparisons and this film proves no exception to it. But for Venkatesh"s performance, the film has failed to please the Telugu audiences. The film has no mass elements to pull crowds to the theatres, while the class audiences, most of whom have already watched the Hindi original, will naturally draw comparisons and understand that Kamal has been wasted in the character and that he has in no way proved to be a good replacement for Naseeruddin Shah. For those who did not watch A Wednesday, the Hindi original, Eenadu is worth a watch.

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