Mirai Movie Review

Teja Sajja grabbed the attention of moviegoers across the country with Hanu-Man. The film was released during the Sankranthi 2024 season and went on to become a huge blockbuster, not just in Telugu but in Hindi as well. After the gigantic success of Hanu-Man, Teja Sajja teamed up with cinematographer-turned-director, Karthik Gattamneni, for yet another underdog turned superhero film, Mirai. Manchu Manoj played the antagonist role and Ritika Nayak played the lead actress role in the film. The film generated enough buzz with the first look poster and the expectations increased further with the teaser and trailer. With the expectations riding sky-high, the film was released in theatres today. Did Teja Sajja deliver yet another commercial blockbuster with a superhero film? Did the director, Karthik Gattamneni, finally deliver a commercial success, after struggling to score a hit with his first two films, Surya vs Surya and Eagle? How did Manchu Manoj do in the antagonist role? Did Ritika Nayak continue her success streak with her second film, after the success of her debut film, Ashoka Vanamlo Arjuna Kalyanam? How did Shriya Saran do in the role of a mother? More importantly, did the production house, People Media Factory, score a resounding success, after the not-so-successful last few films? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Pained with the loss of innumerable lives after the Kalinga war, Emperor Ashoka, decides to let go of his nine powers. He transfers each of the nine powers to nine sacred scriptures and gives the responsibility of protecting each of those nine scriptures to nine trustworthy warriors from nine different groups. The families of the nine warriors have kept on protecting the scriptures for many centuries across generations. In the year, 2000, a self-obsessed and ruthless, Mahabir Lama Aka Black Sword (Manchu Manoj), decides to steal all nine scriptures from the nine people and to become immortal. He was able to successfully grab eight scriptures but to become immortal, he needed the ninth scripture, Amaragrandham. How is Vedha(Teja Sajja), related to Amaragrandham? Why did Vibha(Ritika Nayak) believe that Vedha is the only one who can stop Mahabir Lama? What exactly is Mirai? Who is Ambika(Shriya Saran) and how is she related to Vedha? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Teja Sajja delivered a standout performance. He looked very confident & pulled off a superhero role yet again with aplomb. All the experience of working as a child artist in many movies and the huge success of Hanu-Man, are to be seen in his performance in Mirai. He is slowly turning out to be a bankable hero and seems to be a good option for the directors who look to make films with out-of-the-box ideas.

It is so refreshing to see Manchu Manoj in the role of a ferocious antagonist. His screen presence, dialogue delivery, and menacing performance, looked so good to watch on screen. He is sure to get a lot of specially written roles in big films in the coming days. Ritika Nayak did a decent job with her performance within the limitations of her character. She got the crucial role but there was not much scope for her to deliver a standout performance.

Shriya Saran in the role of Ambika made her experience count and made her presence felt. Jagapathi Babu and Jayaram got very important roles and both of them performed well as usual. The directors, Venkatesh Maha and Kishore Tirumala played the roles of cops and both of them were able to generate a few laughs. Getup Srinu got a lengthy role and he was able to generate a few laughs as well.

Technicalities:

Music Director, Gowra Hari, delivered a first-rate output for the film. His background score is the best happened to the film. He is sure to be flooded with a lot of offers in the coming months. It was a good call by the makers of the film not to include the ‘Vibe Vundi Baby’ song in the film. It would have disturbed the flow of the film had the makers included the song. Editing by A. Sreekar Prasad, would have been better, especially in the first half. At least ten minutes of comedy sequences would have been easily cut down from the final cut.

Karthik Gattamneni did the roles of the writer, cinematographer and the director. He delivered a very good output in all three departments. Let’s discuss more about his work in the analysis section. The Visual Effects team should be appreciated for delivering top-notch visuals in most parts with a limited budget. The production house, People Media Factory, should be appreciated for trusting the director yet again even after the not-so-successful, Eagle. Their belief in the story, the director and the young team, paid off and the Mirai franchise is going to get them a lot of appreciation and make a lot of money in the coming years

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Five Very Well Executed Blocks
2.⁠ ⁠Background Score
3.⁠ ⁠Story Backdrop
4.⁠ ⁠Teja Sajja’s Confident Performance
5.⁠ ⁠Giant Eagle Visual Effects
6.⁠ ⁠Dialogues
7.⁠ ⁠Direction

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Pace Issues In The First Half
2.⁠ ⁠Unnecessary Comedy
3.⁠ ⁠Excessive Usage of AI

Analysis:

There are many good things to discuss in Mirai but before analysing everything else, let’s talk about the music director, Gowra Hari. His background score is the best thing happened to the film. He was able to take a few sequences to the next level with his terrific background score. Especially, his work during the pre-interval sequence in the Himalayas with Vedha and the giant eagle is top-notch. Also, the Jaithraya song, its placement and the visuals in the song are sure to induce goosebumps in the audience while watching the film. He delivered a stunning background score for Hanu-Man as well but in that film, the score was mostly derived from Sthothras, Hanuman Chalisa, etc. But in Mirai, he came up with an original background score for most parts and it worked big time in favour of the film.

The director took the story of an underdog turned superhero with a backdrop that is inspired by Ashoka’s Nine Unknown Men’ and wrote the screenplay with five superbly executed blocks. The pre-interval sequence, the transformation sequence of ‘Vedha’ to ‘Yodha’, antagonist backstory episode, Montage sequences with the backdrop of Jaithraya song and climax episode involving Lord Rama, worked out very well. All five lengthy episodes were seamlessly integrated into the story and were placed in the film in such a way that the audience is sure to feel the adrenaline at least once every fifteen minutes right from the pre-interval sequence to the climax. The credit should be given to the writer and director, Karthik Gattamneni for taking up the backdrop of ‘Ashoka’s Secret Society’ and for coming up with a largely engaging fantasy drama without making it too complex to understand. Right from the pre-interval to climax, the film gives the feeling of reading a ‘Chandamama Katha’.

One major complaint Karthik Gattamneni received for his earlier directorial, Eagle, was the amount of dialogues that were used to elevate the protagonist character. It seems, he put a conscious effort to overcome that weakness. The dialogue writing in Mirai was balanced and never went overboard. ‘Devudiki Eduru Velle Vadini….Nuvvu Edurukobotunnav’ – just with this one dialogue, he was able to summarise the entire story of the film. ‘Thommidho Grandham Ki Neeku Madyalo Oka Yuddham Nilabadutundi’ – With this one dialogue, he was able to convey how powerful the protagonist is going to become with ‘Mirai’ in his hands. The fact that Karthik Gattamneni is the writer, director and cinematographer of the film, worked out to translate the vision in his mind very well onto the screen. Karthik along with the visual effects department delivered stunning visuals in most parts of the film. We can see the enormous effort put into creating the giant eagle. Mirai is a perfect example to prove that a director with a proper vision doesn’t need hundreds of crores to make a visual spectacle. All it took was about sixty crores for the makers of the film to deliver a largely stunning output.

On the flipside, the pace of the film slowed down after setting up the story and introducing the characters. Around twenty to twenty five minutes of length that involves hero protagonist introduction action episode, comedy sequences involving protagonist’s friends gang and cops, romantic track, looked out of the place and appeared a bit stretched. Better editing during these portions would have made the film even better. Though the comedy episodes involving the directors, Venkatesh Maha and Kishore Tirumala, generated a few laughs, they appeared irrelevant and forced. The director and the editor would have cut down these episodes to make the film even more engaging. Also, the excessive use of Artificial Intelligence(AI) was very evident throughout the film. Especially, a few visuals in the first half, looked very artificial. The film also faced the same issue of monotony which most of the ‘Underdog turned Superhero’ films face in general. All the sequences in the first half related to the hero realising his true purpose, gave a Déjà vu feel and reminded us of Teja Sajja’s earlier film, Hanu-Man.

Overall, Mirai has a few flaws, especially in the first half. However, the positives in the film outnumbered the flaws by a huge margin. Five solid repeat-worthy blocks along with a stunning background score, are alone worth enough to watch it in theatres. Karthik Gattamneni, Teja Sajja and team came up with a very entertaining and largely engaging superhero fantasy drama which is sure to work out very well at the ticket window among all sections of the audience. Particularly, the kids are most likely to love the fantasy world of Mirai immensely.

Verdict: Divine Blockbuster

Rating – 3.25/5