Acharya - Naxal - light

Acharya

2022, Telugu

Director - Koratala Siva

Stars - Chiranjeevi, Sonu Sood, Tanikella Bharani, Pooja Hegde, Vennela Kishore, Regina Cassandra

Mohan's Measure ⭐

Megastar's mega-disaster could have been a good film had the director had used one simple device that differentiates a good film from a bad one.  It's called a brain, and Director Siva hasn't used half of his.

The first half is all about Chiranjeevi's brand. Despite being over 60 the man can still make clothing, hair, and dance feel cool, and the first half brings in the added feature of of his appearing out of nowhere, a veritable man with no name who is ought to eke the Goddess's own justice on evil guys in a small town.

Tollywood audiences, however, wouldn't care to know the first thing about men with no name, so the need for a back story. Besides, Chiru needs his baby boy beside him. So, rather than try and tie things together,  the temple goddess theme is replaced with Adivasis, deforestation, and of all things, a heroic band of naxalites. Mr. Putin, take a bow!

The younger hero needs a lady to bow to, and this brings in Ms. Hegde. But, wait, we need an item song, hence Regina. The combined screen time of these two young ladies is just shy of a Super Bowl commercial. So, we can only wonder what Keerthi Suresh had been complaining about.

Ms. Hegde should be complaining, though, to her agent, because this makes three films of hers in a month that have flopped at the box office.