Skanda Movie Review

Ram joined forces with the Akhanda director Boyapati Sreenu for the Skanda movie. The trailer of Skanda showed the mass and action of Ram in a bulked-up rugged look and the latest sensation Sree Leela adding the glamour. Boyapati Sreenu’s movies are known for mass dramas and Skanda also seems to be the one made in his style. Skanda was released today in theaters. Here is the review of Skanda from the US premieres.

What Is It About?

The CMs of the two states conspire against each other before a man (Ram) kidnaps both their daughters drawing attention toward him. His kidnap has a reason and its name is Rudraganti Ramakrishnam Raju (Srikanth) who is in jail awaiting his death sentence. Skanda is all about the story behind Ram’s kidnap and its link to the CMs.

Performances

Ram Pothineni’s changeover to a rugged look from Ismart Shankar suited him well. Ram justifies his role with his performance in Skanda. His ease during the action scenes is good to watch. However, Skanda has more fights than the drama and Ram did decent in both. Sree Leela is just for songs and she did her dances well in Chuttu Chuttu and Gandarabai songs. Saiee Manjrekar appears in more of a guest role. Raja Daggubati was given a notable role. Srikanth is fine. Prince, Prudhvi, Kilikki Prabhakar, Sharath Lohitashwa, and Ajay Purkar were all alright in their respective roles. Always heavily dressed and screen-filling star cast is common in Boyapati films and in Skanda too. Many actors hardly get a dialogue including Indraja and Gouthami.

Technicalities

The first thing that comes to anyone’s mind in a Boyapati-Thaman combination is the BGM. Skanda’s background music is senselessly loud and it could have been better. ‘Ne Chuttu’ song is good to watch. Most of the dialogues are monotonous with rhyming like ‘gate’ and ‘toll gate’. The screenplay could have been better. The Cinematography is fine. The editing could have been better, particularly with the slow pace in the second half.

Thumbs Up

Ram
Few Action Blocks
Ram Sree Leela dances

Thumbs Down

BGM
Vintage Plot
Weak Logic
Lag in the Second half
Dialogues

Analysis

More violence less logic, spilling blood, flying goons, strange weapons, and rhyming warnings, a family and a savior. All these are the common elements in most of Boyapati’s films and Skanda is not an exception. In fact, the director yet again brings on a revenge plot with good winning against evil in a most anticipated narrative.

Skanda is a routine mass drama that involves the protagonist going to far extents to save a family that is very close to him. The plot is age-old and so is the narrative. Being a Boyapati film, Skanda has the extra attractions of high-octane action blocks every now and then for the mass audience and his fans.

The first half of Skanda is not very entertaining with the conventional setup of the hero trying to impress a CM’s daughter on one side and the two states CMs loading guns against each other for a different reason, on the other side. The romantic track is below ‘average’ and only the action episodes manage the run until the interval.

The second half gets more violent with the actual plot revelation and Ram becoming unstoppable with his killing spree. The director chose to stick to a vintage commercial formula of powerful politicians picking up an honest businessman for their illegal financial activities and troubling his family upon his obvious refusal. Not stopping there, Boyapati left the logic to haywire all along with ancient ideas like drugs and sexual allegations putting a sincere man behind bars.

Though the action blocks enthrall the mass, it went to extremes in a few instances like Ram taking out hundreds of armed men with just a weapon or two in his village. The less the logic is discussed in Boyapati’s film, the better it would be. There is a family drama and a few dialogues that are decent.

As a part of a typical Boyapati setup, there is a lengthy action episode in the climax in the temple backdrop and with dangerous weapons. There is a director-special yet predictable twist at the end connecting the foreshadowed dots. Overall, Skanda is a routine mass-action movie in the Boyapati template that might entertain the action-loving audience and the fans of Ram.

Bottom Line: No Caption, Only Mass Action Magic

Rating: 2.5/5