I must admit that I was sufficiently warned. Good friends asked me not to waste my time. One in fact decided that I had obviously lost my mental balance and any semblance of intelligence when I saw the movie. But I had an old hero called George Bernard Shaw in mind.

He (or was it Einstein) was the one I remembered for exploring a theory of “beauty marrying brains” and begetting perfection. Now I always found Sarika to be plasticy and incapable of displaying any emotion…just as I found Kamal Hassan to be a brilliant actor even if he was a tad extreme. And I was curious to see what their progeny would be like.

I had seen Shruti Hasan in a couple of earlier movies, but thought it was too soon to judge. In this movie I thought I’d get to see a side of her never seen before.

And I did.

You see, the Director seems to have decided to make the best of a non-actress…and so created a character who doesn’t emote. She doesn’t react, she doesn’t provoke…she just floats through life with a Buddha like calm that has been enforced by a very experimental Prakash Raj.

Most of her dialog is delivered by a very seductive mid riff. Her reactions to music for instance consist mainly of thrusting her pelvis into a 360 degree gyration and shaking her ‘pumped up with tassels’ bust into a very distracting jiggle.

In all fairness (again) I must admit that the Director was very even handed in distribution of commands. He seems to have told Allu Arjun also not to act, and especially not indulge in his usual demonstration of aerobics and gymnastics  that he mistakenly calls dancing.

Now imagine the uninspiring songs and ridiculously erotic dances that make up most of the story. And the horse analogy is so thin and so insignificant that even the most avid punter would commit suicide at the way the title has been misused. And you’ll get an idea of the torture that this movie involves.

The goody two shoes older brother and the younger, good for nothing brat idea is so clichéd that even Tanikella Bharani could not give it any new twist. But the cake was surely reserved for Siva Reddy, the villain. For once the villain was not a physical deformity but a fairly presentable fellow with ridiculously childish traits and desires. Seriously, when Telugu film makers copy concepts and steal ideas, they should learn to keep away from psychotic stereotypes. The classic, western, hopped up on weed or something more lethal act is alien to our audiences and the actors manage to caricaturise themselves into idiocy.

So what was nice about the movie? Well I did like the way everyone tried to do something different. I even liked the way the bearded MLA becomes beholden to Allu Arjun and is finally responsible for making him an ACP for a day by virtue of being the Home Minister.

I liked the way Alluboy did not mind that Shrutibaby was beating him at his own game and matching him step for step…and grabbing more eyeballs than he could imagine.

I liked the way I could not get Royal Tickets so landed up spending a hundred bucks less.

I liked the way that films were trying to be different. And oh yes, I loved my salted fries