Ayyare Review

We live in a country where terrorists are given biryani and patriotism is censored, so goes the collective lament of our men.  There comes a point in Ayyare when Rajendra Prasad stumbles upon one such irony that is a feature of our national life.  The hungry and the destitute are hounded out, branded bandits, naxals, etc., locked up in jails as under-trials, a few of them even butchered.  While, on the other hand, fake god men and quacks are feted, worshipped, enriched, pampered and immortalized.  Left with no choice and having been looted and beat up by cops who mistake him for a radical, Rajendra dons the saffron robes, acquires the avatar of a bairagi, calls himself the childhood friend of Sri Krishna.  That's how God becomes a partner in his sweet crime.  Had Sagar Chandra's Ayyare been released at a time when there was no piracy, less of Internet, and the audience had faith in the claims of our filmmakers, it might have had the BO go ring-a-ring.  Yes, the film makes a quite interesting watch.  What's more, there is no trace of obscenity/vulgarity in the movie.

You will be surprised to know that this Rajendra-Shivaji starrer is a clean watch!  Going by the pre-release characterization of the movie as having been inspired by Swami Nithyananda's 'escapades', you might get the feeling while entering the hall that you are a voyeur who has bought the ticket in hope of being titillated.  Actually, Ayyare is a stainless entertainer that can be watched with your family.

It tells two stories in a linear fashion.  The film begins with Rajendra Prasad being chased by some goons who want to get him killed.  In his attempt to stage an escape, he enters into a bar.  There you see Shivaji who is fully drunk, drooling and sobbing.  He wants to share his own story with whoever can give him the reason as to what went wrong with his life.

Shivaji, seen as Venkatesham, is a mechanic who bumps into Anjali (Aneesha Singh), the daughter of a rich businessman.  He concocts a series of lies to woo her and even poses himself as the EAM-CET 1st ranker of the 1998 batch.  When she finds that he is a big liar, she decides to break up with him.  Her anger subsides and grief overtakes her.  Soon, she realizes that she is in love with him and dares to tell her father that she wants to marry the mundane mechanic.  Surprisingly, her father gives the nod.  Two scenes later, he becomes violent and threatens to eliminate Shivaji.

Why?  Watch out for the second half, which answers many more questions.  The film is full of unpredictable scenes, but in the course of the film they are backed by convincing logic.  Ayyare is a well-written film that has no loose ends.

The second half tells the story of Rajendra, who has race against time and earn Rs. 10 lakhs so that his little daughter can be operated for a rare kind of cancer.  He changes into a fake bairagi when all options close to him for earning money.  He becomes a successful god man, outside whose house VIPs queue up and around whom informed bhakts (including an SP and a quantum physicist) interpret his words uttered out of ignorance.  "Swami, manam chanipoyini taruvata yemi avutundi?" asks a seeker.  "Manam chanipoyina taruvata yemi avutaundi ante", continues a witless Rajendra, "chaste telisi vostundi".  A disciple sitting at his legs quotes a verse from the Gita and says that the Swamiji just put its gist in plain language.  The film has many such rib-tickling scenes.

Rajendra soon starts feeling guilty.  He wants to disappear from the scene and save his daughter.  But, he is in the grip of Sai Kumar, who plays Gajapathi, a greedy cop.  Can Rajendra get out of the tangle?

Ayyare has good performances, apt dialogues, a tight screenplay, and, above all, a heart of its own.  Nice to see comedy scenes (watch out for the OMR sheet joke, Ali, MS and Srinivasa Reddy) and sentimental scenes involving Rajendra and his daughter (watch out for the conversation in the hospital where the father narrates a fictional story to the little girl who has just overheard a nurse talking about her death).  Just when you think that the film is getting pleasantly quirky, it acquires the form of a human drama in a jiffy.  In fact, in a long time, I heard the front-benchers whistling at some meaningful dialogues.

Behind every great fortune there is a great crime, someone had philosophised.  Ayyare tells the story of a divine crime; and the fortune that the loving father amasses goes to the treatment of poor children suffering from deadly diseases.  Hope the audience will reward the sweet attempt.  Meanwhile, thanks for the honest film.

Released on: 20th Jan, 2012