The Paradise Review

Dasara (2023), the first film pairing Nani and Srikanth Odela, was a huge box-office success and also received critical acclaim. After its phenomenal success, both the hero and the director teamed up once again for, The Paradise. The film instantly grabbed the attention of the audience when it was announced and expectations reached the next level when, Anirudh Ravichander’s, name was announced as the music director for the film. The curiosity around the film further increased when Mohan Babu, Sampoornesh Babu, Raghav Juyal, Sonali Kulkarni and Kayadu Lohar, were onboard to play crucial roles in the film.

The first teaser of the film had become the talk of the town and then two songs from the film were released and went on to become huge chartbusters. The team worked around the clock for the last three to four weeks to meet the 24th September release date and even decided not to release the film’s trailer. After finishing a quick round of promotions in various cities, the makers released the film in theatres today.

Did Nani and Srikanth Odela, deliver a blockbuster yet again in their combination? Did Srikanth Odela, overcome the second-film syndrome which most Telugu film directors struggle to overcome? Did Anirudh Ravichander, come up with superb music for a Nani film yet again after Jersey(2019) and Gang Leader(2019)? How did Mohan Babu, Sonali Kulkarni and Raghav Juyal, do in crucial roles? Did, Kayadu Lohar, score her first hit in Telugu with a straight film? More importantly, did the film live up to the massive pre-release expectations? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Gudumba ani okaru…gurthimpu ani okaru..innellu mimalni mosam chesaru. Vallani nammukunte mee akali tiradhu…nannu nammi, nenu cheppindhi chesthe..meeku akali, kastam…rendu undavu(all these years two people played with your lives. One person used you guys to grow his alcohol business and the other person used you all in the name of getting an identity for the tribe. Nothing will change if you believe them. Trust me and walk in my path and I will make sure to take care of your needs) – In a crucial sequence in the film, Jadal(Nani) says the aforementioned dialogue to his Savaris tribe. Why doesn’t he believe in Sammakka(Sonali Kulkarni) and her pursuit of an identity in the Savaris tribe? Why does he hate her mother? After returning from jail, why does Jadal want to meet Shikanja Malik(Mohan Babu) and take revenge on him? What did Shikanja Malik and Vikram Malik(Raghav Juyal), do to the Savaris tribe? Did the tribe eventually get the identity from the government of United Andhra Pradesh in the mid-1980s? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Nani in the role of Jadal aka Sarakka did a good job and he gave his best to appear tough during the action episodes. However, since we are so used to watching Nani in boy-next-door roles, the character in the film, looked too heavy on him. We can see the hard work put in by Nani throughout the film, it appeared that he tried too hard to fit into the character. Also, Nani’s Telangana diction appeared inconsistent and at times, his dialogues were unclear and rushed. Mohan Babu in the role of Shikanja Malik, stood out with his screen presence and unwatchable dialogue delivery. He did his best to pull off a not-so-well-written role.

Kayadu Lohar did well in the role of Subbu but the director seemed to have written her role with the ‘shock value’ in mind. Yes, he portrayed the lead actress’s ‘special’ track aesthetically and he also tried to link the track to one of the core points of the story but, a film of such huge span should consist of suitable content for all sections of the adult audience. Sonali Kulkarni in the role of Sammakka, did a good job. Although she performed well, the issues in the writing, did not help her to let the audience feel her pain during emotional sequences. Raghav Juyal in a poorly written character was wasted. He tried to leave a mark with his body language and mannerisms but none of it worked. Sampoornesh Babu was wasted in a poorly written role. There was a lot of scope to portray heavy emotions through his character but the writer failed to come up with a good characterisation. Easwari Rao, Tanikella Bharani and Raja Ravindra, made their presence felt. Keerthy Suresh appeared in a song. She looked good and danced well. Priyadarshi in a crucial role did a very good job with his performance.

Technicalities:

Anirudh came up with two good songs(i.e. Aaya Sher and Yeshanagula). Both the songs looked good on screen. But, apart from these two songs, his work for the film is below par to say the least. The background score is too loud and nowhere near the standard he set for himself. It almost felt like he worked for the film uninterestedly. When a film is not good, more often than not, people tend to blame the editor and if Navin Nooli, is the editor, people unabashedly troll him. However, in The Paradise, it seems like there’s not much an editor can do when the director shot ‘blocks’ instead of shooting the film with proper drama and arc.

Ch Sai’s cinematography is impressive. He was able to capture the raw and rustic nature of ‘The Paradise’ well with his camera. Especially, the ‘crow’ sequence during the pre-climax action episode was superbly shot. Production values by SLV Cinemas, were very good. It appeared that the producer, Sudhakar Cherukuri, provided all the resources which the director asked for.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Pre-Interval Sequence
2.⁠ ⁠Two Songs

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Lack of Emotional Connection
2.⁠ ⁠Never-Ending Action Episodes
3.⁠ ⁠Poor Screenplay
4.⁠ ⁠Loud Background Score
5.⁠ ⁠Lengthy Runtime
6.⁠ ⁠Every Scene Feels Like a ‘Climax’

Analysis:

A majority of people may write off commercial movies as ‘escapist cinema’ and easy to make. But, making a commercial template-driven film is not as easy as most people opine. Out of numerous commercial films that get to be made year on year, only a handful of them will work. The one thing the directors who end up making a well-packed commercial film, do is give enough time to build drama and then come up with the ‘commercial high’ payoffs. When the drama is built properly and the audience is allowed to feel the emotions of the characters, commercial films always work. And, when a director fails to establish the drama properly, the template driven commercials films end up becoming tedious to watch and test patience. This is exactly what has happened with The Paradise. Srikanth Odela took the core point of ‘fight for identity’ and tried to narrate it with emotions and action. Unfortunately, the emotional part did not work throughout the film. There were a lot of things going on screen but barring a couple of sequences, the emotional connect was never established with the audience. Almost every sequence feels like a ‘CLIMAX’ with either a lengthy action episode or a lengthy monologue.

KGF movie series, Pushpa movie series and more recently, Peddi, the core point of all three movies is ‘Fight for the identity’. Especially, while watching The Paradise, we end up remembering, Peddi, a lot because the protagonists in both movies aim to get an identity for their tribe. To be precise, both the leaders of their tribes in the two movies, fight to get an identity(a voter card) from the government. Peddi may not be a flawless film. It had its flaws but at least it had a proper arc in characterisation with all three acts(the setup, the conflict and a solution). But in The Paradise, Srikanth Odela, tried to come up with multiple blocks without a proper structure. Almost every sequence in the film has three acts(setup, conflict and either a revolt or a solution). It is because of this flaw in the screenplay that we as an audience start to feel every block or sequence as a climax. It looked like Srikanth Odela genuinely believed his story and screenplay were high on emotions and that they were sure to connect well with the audience. Yes, right from the start to the end, there was a lot of so-called emotional drama but barring a moment or two, the audience never got to feel those emotions.

The basic rule of a commercial film is to build drama, let the audience feel the protagonist and his people’s pain and then let the protagonist take on the evil people. But, what we get to see in Paradise is the very start, the protagonist when he was a kid, almost ends up killing the son of the antagonist. And, right at the start of the second half, the antagonist almost kills the protagonist and in the very next sequence, vice versa also happens. When you use such heavy and crucial sequences at the very start of the first and second halves, everything else will become pointless. This is what happens with film and it certainly is the mistake of Srikanth Odela. Another drawback of the film is Srikanth Odela’s decision to mix a fictional story with real-life incidents. It is very evident that he wanted to showcase the Telangana movement but instead of directly using it, he wrote a fictional story and tried to give it the feel of the Telangana movement by using KCR’s character (direct reference including the slang, look and mannerisms). If he wants to make a movie on the Telangana movement, he should have done it directly without using a fictional story backdrop. It was surprising to see an unapologetic, expressive and opinionated person like Srikanth Odela, trying to sugarcoat his intentions through a fictional backdrop.

Also, in a close-to-three-hour film where the hero and villain fight for the upper hand all the time and that too after the villain physically assaults the hero at the start of the second half, the least we as an audience expect is a direct face-off between hero and villain during the climax, isn’t it? But what we get to see is the hero fights against the villain’s gang and the villain kills himself after sekf realising his mistake. It felt so incomplete after all the trouble the villain put the hero and his tribe through. We understand, the director used this approach by thinking Mohan Babu is a senior actor and showing Nani beating Mohan Babu, may not look good. But, isn’t it a movie and the actors are playing the characters and they should do anything and everything as per the demand of the script? Again, it was surprising to see a young director getting compromised on such crucial things.

The pre-interval sequence, two songs and the pre-climax sequence to an extent, worked in the favour of the film. But apart from that, there’s nothing much to talk about in the film, including Anirudh’s background score. The first half of the film was at least watchable with a few well-made sequences here and there but the second half tests patience with lengthy action sequences one after the other. Overall, The Paradise is most likely to end up as a ‘missed opportunity’. And yes, yet another director in Tollywood failed to break the ‘failure of the second film’ syndrome.

Bottom Line – ‘Pretentious’ Paradise

Rating – 2/5