Bujjigadu - Made In Chennai

Puri Jagannath said recently that he sticks to formula since he doesn't want to play with his producers' money. That's somewhat like asking a friend to invest in a cool company you are starting and then putting all the money he gave you in a savings account to give him assured returns. And actually taking a fee for it.

See, the producer knows he's putting money in an extremely risky medium - he wants you to do something that has a good chance of giving him supernormal returns. Formula films work - when they do - only with big stars and expensive production values, which obviously means if it isn't a really big hit, the returns are meager, if there are even any returns. And most times they don't work even with big heroes - the last 2 films of Chiranjeevi, Mahesh, Balakrishna and Nagarjuna were all average or below average.

The pattern is evident in Puri Jagannath's films - from interesting and innovative movies like Itlu Sravani Subramanyam and Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi at the beginning of his career that showed his caliber, he's now reached a stage where it's strictly violence - Bujjigadu is actually rated A, a heroine of Trisha's talent has almost nothing to do, and the comedy goes down with each successive film.

Someone so risk-averse should actually not be making formula movies that are notorious for not working 85% of the times. And for those so risk-averse, this is the wrong industry anyway.

Lacking in even the high star-power that has been characterizing his formula films, Bujjigadu turns out a pretty average movie. A lack of courtship means that romance is non-existent and Trisha is totally wasted. Mohanbabu is a complete misfit in the role of a dreaded ganglord, emanating zero menace and looking avuncular instead. And there is little comedy, that waft of cool breeze that saves many Telugu films.

With all these, you need a miracle to save the film, and several people already say that Jagannath exhausted his quota of miracles with Desamuduru. Alas.

Bujjigadu is the story of, well, Bujjigadu (Prabhas), who runs away from home as a child since the girl he's in love with has asked him to stop talking to her for 12 years after a tiff. He goes to Chennai, turns into a truck of a man there, and returns to Hyderabad 12 years later to find her again, but the girl Chitti (Trisha) and he cannot find each other, though they're both looking for each other. This is always such a lousy plot idea, especially so when it lasts an entire movie.

To make some money, he accepts a contract from a warlord Machireddy (Kota) and his sons to kill a rival Sivanna (Mohanbabu), but Sivanna has to save him from death after the attack on the latter, and takes him under his care admiring his heroics. Chitti turns out to be Sivanna's sister, and Sivanna makes Bujjigadu pledge that the latter will not reveal to her who he is.

Prabhas certainly looks like he was born to beat up people, and has even improved in acting skills (especially if you remember a certain Chakram), but is still pretty far away from getting any awards. Trisha is totally wasted in a role that's hardly there, and if you ask us, the babe who plays her sister Kangana (Sanjana) looks cuter - smitten and coy in an alluring combination.

Mohanbabu is simply not the man to play Sivanna - he looks rather tired, and hardly a vicious gangster. This isn't a movie with scope for great performances anyway, except if you have to play a butcher. Yes, there's gore aplenty, with enough blood and hacking. And Ali is in one of his usual Puri film instalment routines, which are frankly pretty sad - they get carried by the movie than help it. There are in general hardly any LOLs in the film. There are a few good lines for Prabhas, but used as we all are to Trivikram Srinivas films now, they fall short of an unfair benchmark, especially when the whole movie doesn't consistentl;y have ripping dialogues.

The songs by Sandeep Chowtha are trendy and peppy, and will perhaps help an otherwise insipid movie. Insipid for more reasons than one, including some pretty elementary writing, like that whole 12-year thing, and lines like "I love you saala". Watch Bujjigadu if you are at a loss for anything else, and, oh yes, if you are an adult.