Author : Sreekanth Devarakonda

Love stories are not uncommon in Telugu films. 80% of the stories made in Telugu are love and romance based. Most debutante directors/writers choose a love theme and follow a familiar path – boy meets girl, they fall in love, sing and dance and separate due to some misunderstandings, usually due to their parents. Few cinematic liberties and commercial clichés later, they end up together.

So is the love story in Arjun Reddy radically different from the above?

NO.

Then what is so special about Arjun Reddy? Its intensity, rawness and tenacity that we haven’t seen on Telugu screen in many decades leaving all other love stories over the past decade or two, light years behind,whilst planting a doubt in every movie goer’s mind, as to the kind of travesty, we have been subjected to thus far in the name of love and romance.

Vijay Devarakonda

Take a bow brother! It is impossible to imagine any other contemporary Indian actor in this role. You waltzed in the role with supreme confidence and royal authority. If any other actor attempted this role, it would have become a joke, a sham, and a complete circus. The way Vijay transcended through gamut of character emotionsis unreal and deserves a standing ovation.Vijay Devarakonda breathes life into the character of Arjun Reddy.

The Vijay Devarakonda we saw in PelliChoopulu is only a small tip of the ice berg from an acting perspective. He was a revelation in Arjun Reddy; you cannot imagine anyone else in this role. Discussing that possibility would be thinking of some other actor play Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (or) Amitabh Bachchan in Zanjeer. Vijay was that good!

It is almost impossible to pick a particular scene which would be termed as Vijay’s highlight performance. Each and every scene was a perfect 10/10. Vijay has several look changes in the movie – student, a youngster who is deeply in love, surgeon who is addicted to drugs and a man who is rising from rock bottom trying to win back his lost love. He suited them all to the perfect T.

In conclusion, some actors are born to do specific roles in their life time. Arjun Reddy is most certainly one such role for Vijay Devarakonda! As an admirer and well-wisher, I only wish he gets many such in his professional acting career.

Sandeep Vanga

Director Sandeep Vanga deserves a huge applause for showcasing a powerful emotion called LOVE in the most inimitable and unconventional manner never seen on Telugu screen. Love is shown as a journey and how it impacts the protagonist at various stages – the beginnings, possessiveness, vulnerabilities, physical expression through lip locks and love making, anguish of separation, depression,downward spiral due to drug and alcohol addiction and finally redemption, realizing that true lovers cannot be separated in eternity.

Every individual who has ever been in love (or) has faced a break up situation will associate with Arjun Reddy. The movie is a journey of Arjun Reddy’s character through the ups and downs of his love story. You are happy for Arjun Reddy when he’s in love, you feel sad when he loses his lover. You feel miserablewhenArjun Reddy hits the self-destruct button and reaches rock bottom (and) cheer for him through his recovery process. And finally, you weep with joy when Arjun Reddyreunites with his love. You cherish every moment of Arjun Reddy’s journey in this movie.

One cannot help but observe an uncanny resemblance between Arjun Reddy’s character and hero character Vamsy’sMaharshi movie. The difference, of course, is in Maharshi, the heroine dislikes the hero; while in Arjun Reddy, the hero and heroine are madly in love.

Sandeep has broken many conventions via this movie. Sandeep stuck to his guns and did not bite the bait at any point to crossover into universally accepted cliché’s just to satisfy a common cinema goer. For instance, when every director wants to show a hero as invincible during interval bang beating up 100s of goons defying the laws of gravity, Arjun Reddy is shown urinating during the intermission scene. Almost in the entirety of the second half, hero is shown as a drug and alcohol addict.

The cuss words received a lot of negative publicity before the release but when you watch the movie, their placement felt absolutely imperative. After all, isn’t it normal for youngsters to use cuss words during sports or altercations?

Onscreen kissing or love scenes are not frequent on our screen but isn’t physical intimacy a must between two young people madly in love? The kissing or post love making moments have been captured very aesthetically.The manner in which the hero and heroine count the number of times they made love is very cute.

All the characters are very strongly written; their behavior changes only due to a strong reason and not for the sake of cinematic liberty or scene advancement.Especially, the way Sandeep designed Arjun Reddy’s character is quite unique and atypical for a South Indian movie.

• In one scene, Arjun Reddy beats up a bad guy for inappropriately touching Preethi and then pleads with him never to trouble her again. While Arjun Reddy himself has no fear, he becomes vulnerable imagining the possible plight of Preethi in the future when he isn’t around. Love is not just protecting, it’s also feeling vulnerable for your loved ones.

• Arjun Reddy fondly gives his pet dog his lover’s name but cannot stand when someone refers to it as a dog. Forgetting the fact that he’s a well-educated guy from a sophisticated family, Arjun Reddy chases his maid when she accidentally breaks a glass because he reminiscesa past incident when a glass shard caused injury to Preethi and caused her discomfort.

• Arjun Reddy requests a heroine character (Jiah) to satisfy his physical needs but shoos her away when she says “I love you”. He loves only one girl and that’s Preethi. The thought of sharing that emotion with another person scares the daylights out of him.

• Arjun Reddy puts ice cubes in his pants to curb his sexual urges while in another scene he tenderly explains to his friend, the pains faced by a woman during her periods and details how the suffering can be alleviated by comforting words and making a woman rest in a proper posture.

• Arjun Reddy publicly kisses and shares physical pleasures with his lover but cannot stand when someone objectifies women. Arjun Reddy is the biggest feminist of them all!

When Arjun Reddy is going through depression and gets addicted to drugs and alcohol putting his medical license in question. The entire household especially the male folks are tensed; his grandmother in a stoic tone says – “suffering cannot be shared and he must go through it”. What a powerful scene depicting mental strength of a woman.

Kudos Sandeep Vanga!

Others

Shalini did a great job as the heroine. Her performance during climax scene was heart touching. Rahul Ramakrishna who acted as a loyal friend to the hero did an amazing job and has impeccable comedy timing. He plays a major role in the movie’s success. Yesteryears actress Kanchana did very well as a pragmatic grandmother ahead of her times. All other actors did well.

Background score by Radhan and cinematography by Raj Thota is terrific. They deserve applause for their work.

All in all, Arjun Reddy is a path breaking movie and has all ingredients to be termed as a cult movie with significant cultural impact.While the placement of Arjun Reddy in the list of all-time great Telugu movies will be determined by movie lovers over time, most certainly the character of Arjun Reddy and Vijay Devarakonda’s performance will remain, by a fair distance, the best character and extraordinary acting performance by a lead actor for many more years to come.

– Sreekanth Devarakonda