Ever since I saw the trailer of Hanu Man, that too with Teja Sajja as the main lead, I wanted to watch the movie in theater, thanks to it being a super hero movie based on Hindu Mythology. Added to that Teja had been my favourite child artist after my other favourites and National award winners Tarun and Shamilee, both from the children’s movie directed by Mani Ratnam, Anjali (1990).
Anyway, watching same kind of movies is so boring. I also watched Guntur Karam. I will review it next. I think this is the month of movies as I also watched 12th Fail and The Archies in quick succession!
Let’s get back to the Hanu-Man.
Review:
Directed by : Prasanth Varma
Release Date : January 2024
Hanu-Man
The movie starts with a school going child Micheal and his love for super heroes. (which is generally normal in kids) But once his love turns into obsession, this child grows into a super villain and as far as I know, that is the first instance in a movie, where the villain is introduced in the first scene itself! His mom tries to give him good advice and he also manages to retain it in his brain, the only thing is that he never understands the true meaning of it. So that is our clever, rich and psychotic villain.
Then comes the drone shot and the majestic Hanu-Man statue, guarding the village of Anjanadri, where we find the male lead Teja, playing Hanumanthu, a common thief. Thanks to the build up given during male lead introduction, we may imagine the hero to be good at fights etc, but he is not! He is a failure in many ways. (That clearly shows the contrast between Hanumanthu before and after gaining his super power.)
He is in love with his childhood crush, Meenakshi, a doctor, who visits the village for summer holidays and also enlightens the villagers, who are under the iron fist of a local pehlwan.
Long thing short, during a fight among the goons and the hero, who is in it to save Meenakshi, Hanumanthu falls into the ocean and finds himself a stone, with the power of Lord Hanuman. (The stone is said to contain a drop of Lord Hanuman’s blood. Nice!)
Suddenly the good for nothing thief, finds himself at the centre of supreme power and uses it to help the locals bring down the pehlwan. He also manages to get them to start electing a local head to rule them.
Meanwhile, Micheal happens to see a video of Hanumanthu showing off his super power and lands at Anjanadri, on the pretext of constructing a hospital for them!
The rest of the story is about how Hanumanthu saves the stone from the villain. The movie ends with Hanumanthu becoming a super hero, with a red cape, like Doctor Strange!
Teja as Hanumanthu is believable and is a natural. He is better than some other star kids, who suck at acting.
Amritha Aiyer as Meenakshi has little scope for acting, she is good in her scenes.
Vinay Rai, the hero of Vaana (2008 movie, meaning Rain) now plays a villain who is on the verge of being psychotic. Even if the duration of his role is small, he is impactful.
Sathya, Getup Srinu bring some laughs. I liked how a bird, probably a humming bird, hovered on Sathya’s head, always! Lol! This scene itself shows how well comedy has been blended in the scenes, without adding extra dialogues to impress us, the audience.
The best role however went to Varalaxmi Sharatkumar. Her role is relatable too.
Lastly, there is Samudrakhani, who plays an important character in the movie. I won’t reveal it! (I will forever remember him as the villain from Ala Vaikuntapuram. He even has a song in the movie. Which villain ever had a song in a movie? It is a rare feat!)
Vennela Kishore, for once played a character role and not anything related to comedy. He is one actor who has a natural flair for comedy after the world record holder, Brahmanandam. This is purely my personal opinion. (Sunil used to have similar flair for comedy. But he has transitioned effortlessly into character and villain roles. He is not suited for hero roles, thank God he found his positives.)
Hanu-Man has its highs and lows, but some scenes are memorable and will remain with us for sometime. Just like how Rajamouli makes a powerful statement with memorable scenes, Prashanth Varma has also executed it.
The one scene I love, is where Hanumanthu, after beating up the goons, sits on top of them, which is similar to how Lord Hanuman makes his own throne with his looooong tail, in Lanka, to sit a few feet taller than the Lankesh, Ravana.
Hanuman seated on tail throne in front of Ravana – @Tadipatri, A.P.
The other scene I love is when Hanuman is shown as the shadow of Lord Rama. Chef’s kiss on its way!
It is satisfying to watch Hanuman at the climactic scenes. Thankfully, the CGI is beautiful, which will satisfy an average movie-goer and the scenes with gold coloured Hanuman statue are good too.
Overall the movie is a pleasant watch. There is no vulgarity or cringe worthy scenes, so that’s a plus.
Go ahead and watch it, I am eager to see what will follow this movie.
P.S:
- Prasanth Varma, the director is ambitious and the movie is made under Prasanth Varma Cinematic Universe! There will be sequels coming up and I hope they will surpass the first installment. Way to go. About time someone made a super hero franchise in India.
- Even though Hanu-Man showed a lot of potential, only limited number of theaters or multiplexes had shows for this movie. Injustice! It proved the rumour that big producers don’t allow small movies.
- I loved the song in which the hero Hanumanthu fights the bad guys while the village ladies were busy making the yummy mouth watering mango pickle!