Lenin Review by Baradwaj Rangan | Akhil Akkineni | Bhagyashri Borse | Thaman S | Murali Kishor

[00:00:00]Hello and welcome to the Lotta Plus. In this video review episode, we're going to be talking about Murali Kishore Abburi's Lenin, which is a mostly satisfying love and revenge story with elements from the Mahabharata.

[00:00:10]Akhil Akkineni shows that he can be a mainstream leading man. He plays the title character, an orphan who grows up to be a big part of the family feud in the village. Bhagyashree Borse is the love interest. The supporting characters have interesting and intriguing shades, and there are enough twists and masala flavored surprises to make the movie a decent watch. That's the quick review.

[00:00:30]Longer analysis follows, and it may contain spoilers.

[00:00:34]>> [music] >> Sri Venkateswara University, empowering education, elevating futures.

[00:00:47]>> [music] >> For the first time, Akhil Akkineni looks comfortable in commercial cinema. He looks like he belongs. Yes, his face has been given an artificial tan to make him blend into the rural setting of Lenin, but he looks relaxed. There are no nerves. Sometimes the pressure of being a star kid is so great that they are pushed into cinema before they know the ins and outs of it. There's only the pressure to be a star, like the father, like the grandfather. In Lenin, Akhil handles that pressure pretty well. He sings and dances with conviction. He fights well. He does the romance bits nicely. He delivers the big dialogues with flavor. He finally looks like he's owning the necessary artificialities of commercial cinema. He plays an orphan named Lenin. He walks into a village and is kind of sort of adopted by the character played by Ishwari Rao, a widow who presides over an 18-day festival called Bharatamitta, which has its roots in the Mahabharata. These 18 days are meant to mirror the 18 days of the Kurukshetra war, and Lenin comes off like Karna, a nobody who becomes an important man because he is taken in by an important family. But But he finds himself having to fight with his own kin. There is a Shakuni-like character who likes to gamble. There is a woman who says that her love for her son blinded her, like in the case of Gandhari.

[00:02:05]The 18-day festival is dedicated to Draupadi, and we find an equivalent in Bharati. This character is played by Bhagyashree Borse, whose midriff is given a tad too much prominence. Haven't we crossed those days? But the actress is solid. In a satisfying masala cinema touch, her relationship with Lenin begins and ends with blood. The writer-director Murali Kishor Abburi knows his way around this genre. He knows he's working with a basic revenge template, but the Mahabharata-based tweaks keeps things mostly interesting.

[00:02:33]A big part of the enjoyment of these films comes from whether there is enough cleverness to counter the clichés. I thought there was. There's something interesting going on with Lenin's friend/brother figure, Vasant, played by Pramod Panju. There's something interesting going on with the drunkard named Ethirajulu, played by Shivaji.

[00:02:50]There is something interesting going on with Lenin's reappearance in the village after a stint The film is not perfect, but it does show that no other industry has the utter belief and commitment to masala cinema as the Telugu film industry. It is this unapologetic conviction that makes the most far-fetched contrivances work, like the truth about Lenin at the end. We buy into this without hesitation because this plot point is the result of a particularly brutal act of betrayal, and now we want to see justice being served.

[00:03:23]There is even a ghost, but I, for one, was not rolling my eyes. This is the film's pitch. It works. What doesn't work so much is the love story between Lenin and Bharati. I like that she's the bolder one. She gambles with men. She speaks up about being in love with Lenin when Lenin feels awkward to declare his love for her. Even the role she plays on stage at the festival is that of Duryodhana. But there are too many songs. Thaman's tunes are nice, but the romance could have used less choreography and more scenes that actually built the relationship between the couple, which is the film's core.

[00:03:53]There are also some bits of lazy writing where big secrets are conveniently overheard, some characters are abandoned like Ishwari Rao after a point, and some characters are hardly developed. One of Lenin's friends is killed. We don't feel anything because we barely spent any time with the guy. But the big things work and the big picture works, mainly because every little happening is developed with seriousness. That's the key to making watchable masala fare. As much as the film is a showcase for Akhil, it is also a showcase for a certain kind of larger-than-life cinema.

[00:04:23]I was reasonably satisfied.

[00:04:25]That's it about Lenin. If you like this video review, do subscribe to Galatta Plus, and see you soon at the movies.

[00:04:30]>> Sri Venkateswara University, empowering education, elevating futures.

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