Sarkaru Vaari Paata - "Loan" - ly Hearts

 

Sarkaru Vaari Paata

Telugu, 2022

 

Director - Parasuram

 

Stars - Mahesh Babu, Keerthy Suresh, Samuthirakani, Subbaraju

 

Mohan's Measure ⭐⭐

The ever-youthful superstar is back to prove how rich kids can still have values, and how the bad guys don't stand a chance.  In SVP, he plays a character having his own name, Mahesh, a Miami based financier who goes to India to collect a $10,000 loan, only to wind up standing toe to toe against a really bad guy who takes large bank loans and refuses to repay them. He contrasts this with the middle class folks, who lose home and family to collection agents.  So, he becomes a vigilante, as would be expected, to put superhuman skills to use in saving the known world.  In the process, of course, he beats up every North Madras Rowdy who happens upon the set, gets a giggle or two playing straight man to Vennela Kishore, romances the villain's overly pampered daughter, and reforms the villain with a few words of advice.  All this while making even tattered jeans and a sweatshirt look like they popped out of GQ Magazine.  But, we have to ask ourselves, where have we seen all this before?  Obviously, in every other Mahesh Babu movie made of late.   

Indeed, the plot serves really only as backdrop, a Mcguffin, if you will, to the Mahesh Babu brand, and indeed lovers of Mahesh will find everything they want in his swag, cool clothing, incredible dance skills and college student looks.  But, there is something missing, the magic that came to fore in his earlier films.  How much we try not to, we cannot help but recall watching wide-eyed at Dookudu, Pokiri, and other films that wound action sequences, romance, and yes, even comedy, around a tightly wound albeit unbelievable story.

SVP's plot feels fake, and it shows in the actor's faces, as they try and bring depth to a plot that has been more contrived than conceived.  For this, I do not blame the actors - they do what they can with what they got.  But, I do blame the director/writer for putting together a script that seems like it was written on a cocktail napkin at a local pub, rather than having been seriously looked at to well encapsulate and emphasize the archetypal hero, who can be none other than the legendary Mahesh Babu.