Movie Review: Akhil
on Nov 11, 2015
Cast: Akhil, Sayesh, Brahmanandam, Vennela Kishore, Rajendra Prasad and Mahesh Manjrekar
Release Date: 11th November, 2015
For the first time ever, a debuting star-kid is getting so much attention. That's how Akkineni Akhil created buzz for himself. After a long dillydallying he found a right script and director VV Vinayak to launch him.
The CONTENT:
A ball shaped thing called 'Jua' gets missing from an African tribe located at the equator, and a Russian millionaire along with Indian businessman (Mahesh Manjrekar) tries to get hand over it. Meanwhile Akhil (Akhil) is an orphan who falls in love with Divya (Sayesha) at first sight. He pretends to be a medico and impresses Divya. At the same time, Divya gets hurt after engagement with Vennela Kishore gets broken and she flies to Europe. Akhil too manages to reach Europe and reveals truth to Divya, only to get hated by her. By that time, Divya comes to know about the truth of Jua and she gets kidnapped by African terrorist named Mombo. What happens from there is the rest of story. Will Jua lands in good hands? Will Divya accepts Akhil's love? You have to watch it on silver screen.
The EFFORT:
On-Screen:
Akhil, and all that hype and hoopla turns out to be just exaggeration. Other than practicing rigorous dances, he has forgotten to take care of expressions. Standing like a rock-stone in many scenes, Akhil disappointed heavily. Even those dances sounded too heavy, without grace and balance. Except his looks for a handsome chap, there is nothing big to boast about.
Sayesha Saigal is rather beautiful and she has the spark to become a commercial heroine. While her glamorous side isn't explored in the film, she made her presence felt in romantic scenes, though there is nothing much of romance in the script.
Brahmanandam and Vennela Kishore are the strong pillars for second half as the film gets saved only by their witty dialogue delivery. Jaya Prakash Reddy, Mahesh Manjrekar and Rajendra Prasad are wasted in simple roles. Except those dialogues of them we heard in the trailer, there is nothing inside the movie.
Off-Screen:
Thirty-minutes into the film we get a doubt if VV Vinayak has directed the film or not. His trademark action-paced scenes and comedy are fully missing. With whatever the poor writing he has in hand, he tried to do the magic, but it succeeded partially. Selecting a poor story, indeed without logic, is the biggest negative he got for "Akhil" on the board.
Amol Rathod's cinematography stands out, but those sequences shot in African forests are not so impressive. It could be seen that Nitin has spent extensively as a producer to make each song look very very rich. But all his money went to locations and costumes, while nothing looked unique and exciting for the eye. Choreographers Jani and Sekhhar composed good dance moves.
Veligonda Srinivas has given a cliched story for Akhil, that has no sense at all. While the movie revolves around Jua, the Jua is present only in the first and last 5 minutes of the film. Adding too much masala from the writers has complicated the stuff. None of Kona Venkat's dialogues are memorable and awe-struck. They are all routine punches.
The PLUSES:
Slick runtime of 2 hours 10 minutes
Brahmi-Vennela Kishore scenes
The MINUSES:
Akhil's improper acting
Poor story and pathetic climax
Disappointing songs
BREAKDOWN:
Akhil has struck in the web of over-hype and choosing a mass director like Vinayak is little dangerous move for him. Seems like it's going to cost him heavily this Diwali.
It's the story of a 'Jua' created by some Maharishi's million years back that draws the attention. As the Jua is fixed at the equator, the animated episode wonders us. Back to present, Akhil is an orphan (as are many Telugu heroes on screen) who falls in love with a medical student. All those scenes provided nice comic relief, while the main story never opened up. Scene shifts to villains, comedians and hero and then finally lands up in Europe through Rajendra Prasad's help. We can't write off those scenes, routine but brings laughs, but not so engaging. A simple, expected interval bang leads to interval only.
Second half starts on a known note, with heroine's kidnap becoming the central element. This time Kona Venkat would have influenced the makers to take the story to a forest, rather taking to his favourite house comedy. Anyway the forest comedy between Akhil, Brahmi and Vennela Kishore have has out well. They are bit relief from the pointless story that is going nowhere. When the screenplay falls flat and story comes to stand still, graphics take their turn to disappoint further. A fight with black panther, underwater sequence in the pre-climax and aeroplane crashing sequence in climax sound as horrible as they could be. When there's no need for such unwanted CG imagery, the film takes that route to further disappoint people.
If dances are the dominion of Akhil, then he should have shown variation in each song rather resorting to heavy moves all the time. With heavy dancing it sounded too sweet to taste. At the same time, Akhil's inability to deliver multiple expressions is a big minus. The way Vinayak failed to churn out a decent entertainer out of a crap story could be clearly seen. He tried but his efforts went in vain. Those who are expecting a terrific treat from Akhil will disappoint highly, while other cine goers would pass the film as a popcorn entertainment.
Despite hard efforts from producers by planning a release in 1200+ theatres across the globe, "Akhil" will struggle to recover its budget. All that comedy in second half and dances of Akhil will help the flick sustain only for a short period.
Rating: 2.25/5
Final words: 'Akhil' Missile Misses It's Target
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