There are films that you watch with a willing suspension of disbelief, filmmaker V V Vinayak makes many like them work, not by virtue of their plot but their strong masala element. Even going by the minimalistic standards he has set in the past, Inttelligent (sic) is among the silliest films he’s made to date. What you see here is a director stuck in a time warp, lost in the archaic fight-song-comedy mix that Telugu cinema is trying to move away from.
The premise hints at its ‘potential’- Teja (Sai Dharam Tej) is a happy-go-lucky techie who stands up for his loved ones when in danger. He’s perennially the ‘man of the hour’; he comes to the rescue of his boss Nanda Kishore (Nasser) whose regular welfare programmes and public popularity invite the ire of his competitors who make a bid to plot Nasser’s downfall. How Teja a.k.a ‘Dharma bhai’ goes about his business forms the plot of Inttelligent . There are many dumb baddies that Teja has to deal with, it’s not surprising to see them label Teja ‘intelligent’ in their every alternate line.
- Cast: Sai Dharam Tej, Lavanya Tripathi
- Director: V V Vinayak
- Plot: A techie makes a no-holds barred attempt to protect his boss' family
The girl is quite insignificant in terms of the plot. Teja calls her a ‘trial’ repeatedly; he falls on his knees in front of Lavanya Tripathi (a stranger passing by) only to teach his friend how to propose a girl. Next comes a sequence where his mother credits him with bringing out the singer in her. The girl is pleased, the two fall in love and there arrives the remixed version of ‘ Chamak chamak cham, ’ a revised version of that iconic Chiranjeevi-Vijayashanti song and dance only making us wish this was just as pleasing visually.
The protagonist traps corrupt people and transfers their black money to the downtrodden families across the Telugu states. A comical interaction between the politicos where they discuss the amounts they lose to his plans , helps register an occasional smile.
Another glimpse of the ‘intelligence’ the film endorses-the pilots divert their flight from Shamshabad airport to Begumpet because a drone (operated by Teja’s friend near the landing zone) comes in their way.
Brahmanandam’s physical appearance is described as a mix of a lion, elephant and a gorilla- that’s the humour you get from ‘Inttelligent’. V V Vinayak is blinded by commercial obligations and recycles his own films with newer faces. Sapthagiri is back to doing comedy roles, it isn’t good news though. Neither the extra ‘t’ in the title nor actors like Sai Dharam Tej, Lavanya Tripathi and Nasser can salvage a banal script that makes a mess of the masala tropes.
