Cast: Balakrishna, Trisha
Direction: Satyadev
Music: Mani Sarma
Plot: A man struggles to know whether he is Godse or Bose
Bottomline: Director’s inexperience dominates
There should be some method in madness, especially when an auteur gets an opportunity to direct a debut film after 15 years and four years to work on his story. All those who see Balakrishna’s films are his cult fans and what is expected out of him is sheer entertainment which he has been dishing out for so many years. But when a newcomer is given a chance he should be using the opportunity to show some freshness in the story or presentation of the hero. Lion is nothing but sublime absurdity. We are stuck in an industry where stories are weaved for a niche audience and where heroes refuse to age on screen and still have the leading lady being portrayed as a bimbette. Imagine a man waking up from coma after 18 months and walking straight to the ATM and keying in his pin number.
Balakrishna plays a dual role — he is Bose but people know him as Godse. The first part of the story is about how his folks are hunting for him in the hospital and he moves straight to Mumbai to look for his past. He discovers his parents and his lover Mahalakshmi (Trisha). They deny knowing him and the doctors diagnose his medical condition as déjà vu and do a DNA test on him. It is revealed he is Godse. The next half shows why his memory haunts him.
Clunky writing and an absolutely weak screenplay that doesn’t establish why the hero battles between two personalities does the film in. While one skims through the first half of the film, the second is a poor joke , with a CBI officer stepping in and Prakash Raj doing his own thing. The logic flies out of the window and suddenly Indraja in formal clothes overacts with her body language and theatrics. There are lengthy scenes of a fleet of cars following and outdoing each, supposed to be the CM’s convoy. On the other side you see satellite tracking and elaborate images on the computer that is apparently meant to heighten tension but none of that happens. The villains are dummies. Trisha has a gang of armed women who are unleashed to recovery money from Balakrishna. They pounce on him and our man pulls out a small can and sprays it all over himself and the women kiss and swoon over him. In another scene, Radhika Apte gets her arm inked with his name and the hero says, “Don’t do it, you are very sensitive. Chirugali thagilthene nuvvu thattukolevu.”
Radhika wears a blank expression. There is another gem, a man confronts Balaiyya, “Natho matladataniki yentha dhairyam neeku” and the latter retorts “Neetho matladataniki dhairyam enduku...Iphone unte chaalu.” Lion takes plenty of retrograde steps. Mani Sarma too disappoints and the hero struggles with his steps. Time for Balakrishna to do some soul searching or his films would be just another addition to the number of films he has done.
