Ardhanaari Review

Guys, what's wrong?  A fiery youngster walks into the Chief Minister's room in a 'jholawala' get-up, reveals his Five Sutras which he claims will change the fate of India and the CM fears for his post.  The now-insecure CM frantically shouts for his sidekick and screams, "A leader is born.  Kill him!".  Give us a break.  Do you call this creativity?  Another sample: The CM has been kidnapped, there is no anxiety in public, but wait, when four cops are killed by that unknown Superman (in fact, Super Half-woman), the newsreader is more aghast at this!  Four cops getting killed is more earth-shaking, is it?  Such tempo!

For the past few days, a few big shots have been brutally murdered in the city.  The cops are clueless to the core.  The murderer, only the audience knows, is none other than Ardhanaari (Arjun Yajath, the film's only good element).  He joins a group of transgenders before he can go about with his killing spree: the CM is on his hit list.  As a member of the transgenders community, Adhanaari poses himself as innocuous and cunningly gets in touch with some political bigwigs and eliminates them one after one.  The one cop shown (he is so clumsy that out of frustration, he lets out the truth about the CM's abduction to a common woman.  Wow!) has no much work to do.  Meanwhile, the Ardhanaari with no great brains on evidence nor no network of his own, goes about completing his tasks seamlessly.  The cop seethes with rage.  Ardhanaari commits one more murder.  The cop seethes with rage, again.  Ardhanaari kills one more.  The cop seethes with rage.  So on and so forth.

The screen time expended on showing Ardhanaari's prosecution and scheduling of his execution is a record low time.  On the other hand, insignificant elements get more screen space.

The writer here stretches the idea of an ideal hero to the extremes.  Even bizarre.  That the flashback's plot line is outdated is the least of the problems.  The hero destroys private property and lectures about citizen's duties.  Not wow enough?  He gets a pat on his back from a High Court judge for doing this.  Not wow enough?  He doesn't do sex with his wife until he is enlightened about the possibility of giving birth to a Mahatma Gandhi.  Wow enough, for sure!

Such a legend is shown to have no gravitas when he is dancing to the tune of the timeless 'Choodu pinnamma, padu pilloodu..'!  Such a legend beats up a government employee for not doing his duty and in the background, a high-sounding anthem plays out.  As for the legendary wife, she chains the hubby dehumanizingly out of frustration after putting up a Jhansi Laxmibai show in saving her hubby and toddler.  Legendary narration.

The idea of a transgender taking on the system is good.  The portions where the hero seeks his comeuppance as a transgender should have had a mature drama.  It would have evoked a sense of freshness for sure. But the same is not leveraged properly.  Too much of frivolity mars the proceedings.

If Arjun has done a very good act, Mouryani passes muster.  The one who played the cop's role needs someone who lets him be measured.

Ravi Varma's music is loud.  Sai Srinivas Gadhiraju's cinematography is a let down.

Verdict: An outmoded narration style.  May work with C-class centre audiences.

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