'Mirchi' Review: This Telugu film has a weak script

After the debacle of his last film 'Rebel', Telugu actor Prabhas Raju can now be proud of being a part of a successful commercial family entertainer 'Mirchi'.

Debutant director Siva presents a story no different from several Telugu films made over the past years, with some extra dosage of violence to attract audiences from all sections.

The character Jai, played by Prabhas, is an architect by profession. He also likes to play music occasionally on his keytar (read a guitar with keys on the other side). Though, he is never seen playing music in the film, except for the opening song.

The film will have actor Prabhas and Sathyaraj playing the lead roles.

For which viewers are forced to believe he is a musician because for nearly 15 minutes of the film, he is seen loitering around with an instrument.

In the second half of the movie Jai becomes Manasa's prince charming when he saves her from a gang of rowdies. She falls in love with him, but is unable to justify her feelings because of her past, which she has left behind her in village.

Apparently, she is the daughter of one of the most dangerous factionist's family that has been fighting its rival for generations. Having learnt about her past, Jai goes back to India, gets enrolled into the college where her brother, Poorna, is studying and wins his heart after sometime.

With the help of Poorna, Jai gets introduced to Manasa's family as his friend hoping to change everybody with his love.

In essence, Jai attempts to civilise a few family members with barbaric attitude. As the film continues, it also reveales that Jai too has a disturbed past life. Who is Jai and why does he have a gory past? This forms the rest of the story.

The second half of the film showcases Jai in a very violent avatar. This is exactly where the film goes off tangent and boils down to a cliched commercial entertainer. It is cliched not because of its presentation, but for a simple reason that the concept is milked dry over the years, and even after all that, our filmmakers don't seem to avoid it.

However, director Siva does a decent job of churning out a highly entertaining film. He treads the same path as several other directors of the past and therefore is very likely to fumble along the way. Thankfully, Prabhas has shouldered the film well, and since he is an established actor, this formula worked in the favour of the director.

Prabhas does a decent job in a multi-faceted role. Actors Richa and Anushka have very meagre parts to play. On one hand where the former is merely used for glamour, the latter showed some promise in her performance. Brahmanadam comes as a sigh of relief with his comedy in the narrative, which is inundated with so many characters.

Sampath, one of the best villains, packs a powerful performance. This is definitely his beginning of a long career in the Telugu film industry provided he is used effectively.

The fiml has music by Devi Sri Prasad whihc may appeal to the masses. Cinematography is by Madhi, which is not extraordinary, but partly satisfying.

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