Venkatapuram - Beachfront Improprieties

 

Venkatapuram

Telugu, 2017

Director - Venu Madikanti

Stars - Rahul Haridas, Mahima Makwana, Ajay Ghosh, Ajay

Mohan's Measure ⭐⭐

There are certain formulaic elements even in film noir, and Venkatapuram has several key ones for which we can give the writer and director some credit:

1. An otherwise normal guy who walks into the wrong place at the wrong time.
2. A femme fatale who brings said unsuspecting guy into a complex, seemingly unsolvable situation which requires going above the law
3. A disillusioned and amoral cop who is on to what is going on.

Simple enough, and if kept in that track can lead to the stuff that dreams are made of - as they say in the exemplary noir film, The Maltese Falcon.

But, since when does Tollywood stick with the norm?  For it has its own formula for the 2000s: fill the movie with comedy, and if that doesn't work throw in brutal violence.  Venkatapuram does this in order, humor in the first half; blood, guts, and gore in the second.  Why? Because it sells.  

So much for the Maltese Falcon.  Venkatapuram, however, should - as they say in old Hollywood - definitely get the bird.