“Real love is always chaotic. You lose control; you lose perspective. You lose the ability to protect yourself. The greater the love, the greater the chaos. It’s a given and that’s the secret.” ― Jonathan Carroll
What 'Arjun Reddy' does well is to capture this chaos and does it with a class of its own. The movie itself is a rehash of the same old Devdas formula (with a dog to boot) but where it is refreshing is the tone it brings to the story telling, the music and bringing the rawness of emotions on screen.
There were two movies that keep coming to mind while watching this one. One is 'Shiva' and the other is 'Gulabi'. To me, growing up in the 90s, there is no doubt that 'Arjun Reddy' is just an updated version of these Ram Gopal Varma classics. There is no comparison of story et al, but 'Arjun Reddy' brings the same shock factor updated to 2017.
The story is told in flashbacks and raw. 'Arjun Reddy' succeeds in telling the story in an unconventional way and may be a little shocking to those used to watching the candy floss love stories.
Arjun meets Preethi, falls in love, Preethi marries someone else, Arjun goes into pieces and somehow manages to pick up the pieces and live. The love story starts on scene 1 and with a kiss. The movie is told from the hero's perspective and there is no other perspective shown. What goes on with the girl who gets kissed on first meeting is never told. But then the movie is chauvinistic in many ways. The girl exist only as an object of love and nothing more.
However, the movie is not about making politically correct statements and where the movie succeeds is when the girl gets married to some guy in line with her father's wish and the disintegration of Arjun begins. Already a short tempered person. he just goes downhill in a very familiar way - alcohol and drugs - add a shade of wild womanizing and that does it.
"Love is an illness of mind. While it promises to bring happiness, all it does is to bring a brief moment of happiness and a forlorn hope of it' "
The second part of the movie captures this illness when Arjun goes downhill losing his Doctor's license in the process and slowly recovers from the loss. While recovery from the loss is not possible, picking up the pieces and try to salvage what remains is the possibility. The film goes to a conventional climax when Arjun meets Preethi in a park, fully pregnant now.
The climax is the most unsatisfactory part of the movie. The movie actually ends once Arjun is able to realize the loss and is able to pick up the pieces of his life.
Vijay carries the movie at ease and the heroine has not much of a role to play except to be there. However the biggest contribution to the film's success is from the music director. There are a lot of places where there is no BGM but a lot more places where it is played very cleverly and what a music. The BGM songs, from Louis Armstrong to Bombay Jayashree are played at the appropriate places (reminds one of Tarantino's use of tracks) and there are no full songs as everything in the movie keeps moving.
Sandeep Vanga (Director) brings a whiff of fresh air to the narration techniques, through a lot of visuals, sarcasm all along in dialogues (another strong part of the movie) and a very clever rawness in the situations. Nothing is without a whiff of drama - like when Arjun chases the house maid when she breaks a beer bottle - followed by a cut injury similar to the one Preethi had. Or when Arjun walks away during a lovemaking session with Jia because she said 'I Love you'. The connections are not made deliberately and it is for the audience to tie up.
A very interesting movie.
What 'Arjun Reddy' does well is to capture this chaos and does it with a class of its own. The movie itself is a rehash of the same old Devdas formula (with a dog to boot) but where it is refreshing is the tone it brings to the story telling, the music and bringing the rawness of emotions on screen.
There were two movies that keep coming to mind while watching this one. One is 'Shiva' and the other is 'Gulabi'. To me, growing up in the 90s, there is no doubt that 'Arjun Reddy' is just an updated version of these Ram Gopal Varma classics. There is no comparison of story et al, but 'Arjun Reddy' brings the same shock factor updated to 2017.
The story is told in flashbacks and raw. 'Arjun Reddy' succeeds in telling the story in an unconventional way and may be a little shocking to those used to watching the candy floss love stories.
Arjun meets Preethi, falls in love, Preethi marries someone else, Arjun goes into pieces and somehow manages to pick up the pieces and live. The love story starts on scene 1 and with a kiss. The movie is told from the hero's perspective and there is no other perspective shown. What goes on with the girl who gets kissed on first meeting is never told. But then the movie is chauvinistic in many ways. The girl exist only as an object of love and nothing more.
However, the movie is not about making politically correct statements and where the movie succeeds is when the girl gets married to some guy in line with her father's wish and the disintegration of Arjun begins. Already a short tempered person. he just goes downhill in a very familiar way - alcohol and drugs - add a shade of wild womanizing and that does it.
"Love is an illness of mind. While it promises to bring happiness, all it does is to bring a brief moment of happiness and a forlorn hope of it' "
The second part of the movie captures this illness when Arjun goes downhill losing his Doctor's license in the process and slowly recovers from the loss. While recovery from the loss is not possible, picking up the pieces and try to salvage what remains is the possibility. The film goes to a conventional climax when Arjun meets Preethi in a park, fully pregnant now.
The climax is the most unsatisfactory part of the movie. The movie actually ends once Arjun is able to realize the loss and is able to pick up the pieces of his life.
Vijay carries the movie at ease and the heroine has not much of a role to play except to be there. However the biggest contribution to the film's success is from the music director. There are a lot of places where there is no BGM but a lot more places where it is played very cleverly and what a music. The BGM songs, from Louis Armstrong to Bombay Jayashree are played at the appropriate places (reminds one of Tarantino's use of tracks) and there are no full songs as everything in the movie keeps moving.
Sandeep Vanga (Director) brings a whiff of fresh air to the narration techniques, through a lot of visuals, sarcasm all along in dialogues (another strong part of the movie) and a very clever rawness in the situations. Nothing is without a whiff of drama - like when Arjun chases the house maid when she breaks a beer bottle - followed by a cut injury similar to the one Preethi had. Or when Arjun walks away during a lovemaking session with Jia because she said 'I Love you'. The connections are not made deliberately and it is for the audience to tie up.
A very interesting movie.
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