Thikka – Movie Review

Story:

Adithya (Sai Dharam Tej) is a booze-happy youngster loved by a rich kid, Anjali (Larissa Bonesi). The girl breaks up with him for not remembering landmark dates of their love life and because Adithya doesn’t seem quite sincere. At office, Adithya gets conned by an half-bald headed Ali (whose suggestive romantic pair is played by Mumaith Khan) into cheating his best friend of many years (played by Sathya, a bit of a relief in an otherwise nightmarish film).  

Through that night, Adithya faces several unsavory incidents which he didn’t bargain for. His father (Rajendra Prasad) is back – together with one Kamala, a gutsy daughter of a late gangster having bad feud with Ajay, who plays a gangster. Ajay is after Kamala because to settle scores. Eventually, Adithya is sucked into this rivalry as he has to save Kamala for his father. Meanwhile, the entry of one Paddu into the break-up party that night only spells more nuisance for Adithya.

The second half is mainly about comedy of confusion built around multi-dimensional kidnap drama, laced with absurd characters who either lack common sense or are unpredictable, etc.

Analysis:   

Director Suneel Reddy of ‘Om 3D’ fame here tries to swallow more than what he can chew. He takes the big plunge assuming that good technical output is a substitute for neat narration. A comedy of confusion needn’t necessarily be a comedy in a hurry. That’s what ‘Thikka’ is. Characters make a thankless entry after another, only to be given a short shrift minutes later.

Take the opening sequences, for example. It begins like a crime thriller, shows Adithya is out to consume poison, a gun-wielding girl (Mannara Chopra) is targeting him from behind, a battalion of commandos arrive urgently in the same apartment.  So far, so good. The problem begins when things continue to be unclear, deliberately so.  Before a question mark entertains, another question mark frustrates the audience. It’s all OK to be clever, it’s not OK to be too clever-by-half. Right from the way the scene in the office involving Ali and Teju is executed, to Posani Krishna Murali’s antics, to Taugobthu Ramesh’s histrionics, it’s difficult to put up with a film which incrementally and progressively adds noise to loudness!

It’s surprising that, despite the disastrous performance of his last film, Suneel Reddy hasn’t learnt his lessons. If ‘Om 3D’ had too many negative characters, ‘Thikka’ has too many ‘bakwaas’ personae. Even the hero’s lover is absurd. She is ready to elope this minute, and discovers the lover boy is too silly the next minute and has a change of mind.  

If this is the case when your characters don’t go over-board, imagine the blunders when your characters alienate you scene after scene. The second half is big mess. Unfortunately, it’s blighted by a screenplay that is unclear and half-hearted, a mien that is crass.  

Sai Dharam Tej’s image has taken a turn for the good after back-to-back hits. In isolation, Teju has scraped through a poor script here, retaining his sanity in an ecosystem of silliness. There is nothing home to write about Larissa and Mannara, who irk with their artificiality. Rajendra Prasad has been wasted in a sketchy role.  The likes of Sathya, Sapthagiri and Vennela Kishore pass muster, while Raghu Babu, Ali and others are forgettable.   

Cinematography by KV Guhan is a bright spot. The lighting and angles are good. Thaman’s songs and BGM are a turn-off, never mind the visually rich picturization of the songs. Sheik Dawood’s story is nothing refreshing. Harshavardhan’s dialogues have never been so lifeless.  

Bottomline:
The film’s title is justified at the very beginning. Over-the-top, loud, sketchy, mindless..’Thikka’ is all of these and worse. Big bore. One of the badly made movies this year.