Agent Movie review:‘Wild saale’ nahi boring saale

Akhil Akkineni teamed up with director Surender Reddy for his latest film “Agent,” which has been in production for the last one year. There have been decent expectations on this film, for which Akhil went through a massive transformation. The movie has been released and let’s see how it fares at box-office.

Story:

Akhil plays a wannabe RAW agent in the movie, and tries very hard to become one. However, all of his attempts fail, which then leads him to Devil, a famous RAW agent, played by Mammootty. Devil has been in a tiff with God, played by Dino Morea, who runs a syndicate in India, and Devil’s job is to take out God. What is the tiff between Devil and God, and how does Akhil’s character fit into this forms the rest of the story.

Analysis

Agent has a very interesting plot line and Akhil’s characterisation has been designed in an interesting manner with full of energy. Akhil’s character does unpredictable things in a very stylish way but the Surender Reddy failed to engage the audience with the right screenplay and failed to connect the audience to the mission. A spy thriller requires twists and turns and a strong villain which all are lacking in “Agent.”

Everything right from the first frame has been created in an extremely predictable manner with some scenes being outright illogical. The songs are the biggest minus of the film and so is the love track which tests the audience’s patience. Akhil has certainly performed well and barring him and legendary Mammotty, every other aspect of the movie failed in a very big way.

The pan-India trend has seriously backfired for “Agent” with the movie failing to draw the audiences towards its core cause. The movie would have definitely helped the makers had the effort put into foreign locations and over-the-top action sequence been used for creating an engaging plot with better characterization.

Overall, Agent is a misfire from Surender Reddy—lacking conviction and glaring shortcomings in providing fun and action, shows. “Agent” is a wild ride indeed, but a tiring and exhausting one leaving one with all sorts of aches.

Performances:

Firstly, Akhil has undergone a wild makeover for the film. His transformation into a wild saale is striking. The long-haired look and the chiseled physique suit him well on screen. He plays an action-packed character. The actor delivers a decent performance and has done what he has been asked to, by the director, which reflects in his performance.

Mammootty is also seen as a special agent and his character is a meaty one. He delivers what is expected of him. He is his usual best in this movie as well. New girl Sakshi Vaidya looks gorgeous on screen. She plays a typical commercial heroine character and has nothing to do in the film. It wouldn’t have mattered even if she weren’t a part of the film. Dino Morea makes his debut in Tollywood with the film, and while his character is not up to the hype that the makers were creating, his performance was decent enough. He has done a decent job with what he has been given, but there’s nothing outstanding about it. It’s a regular formula Telugu villain that he plays in the movie. Other actors like Sampath, Posani, Varalaxmi Sarath Kumar, Sathya were wasted. They were not given any prominence in the film.

Technicalities

Director Surender Reddy is known for making action thrillers in his own style. “Agent” is his most stylist actioner till date, in terms of presentation and visual composition. The film is lavishly shot and the grandeur is seen. While a lot of money has been spent in going to foreign locations and shooting high-octane action sequences, not a lot of focus has been put into writing the story and screenplay of the film. Vakkantham Vamsi provided the story for the film, and it’s a very routine and mundane story that we have already seen in various films, across various languages. The screenplay is also outdated.

Hiphop Tamizha’s songs are a letdown. There is not a single chartbuster audio single in the album. The background score is alright. Better songs could’ve worked in a much better way for the film. This is another major drawback for the film. The cinematography and the locations are very good, making it one of the very few good aspects of the film. The production values are top notch, which is reflected throughout the film. The editing could have been so much better.

Advantages

Akhil and Mammootty’s performance

Pre-interval and interval bit

Drawbacks

Screenplay and direction

Songs

Weak narration

Villain characterisation