Director Shankar, who has been giving many grand films to Indian cinema in his career, is no less than magician Shankar in one respect – he has a new trick every moment. And these tricks of his have given many colourful, grand and ‘wow’ moments to Ram Charan starrer ‘Game Changer’.
Ram Charan has returned to the big screen after 6 years with a solo film. S.S. Before Rajamouli’s Oscar-winning ‘RRR’ and a long cameo in his father’s film ‘Acharya’, he was last seen as a solo hero in 2019’s ‘Vinay Vidheya Ram’. And last time when he was the only hero, he was accompanied by lead actress Kiara Advani, who is also with him in ‘Game Changer’.
Together they make a beautiful pair on screen. But ‘Game Changer’ is Shankar’s signature commercial style film and in such films all the weight and focus is on the hero only. And Ram Charan holds your focus in this film. But could ‘Game Changer’ hold attention as a complete package?
Which ‘game’ has Ram Charan set out to change?
Ram Nandan (Ram Charan), like many commercial films, fails to manage his explosive anger, but is a boy with clean intentions and morals who cannot see anything wrong happening. Deepika (Kiara) is his love interest whose job, like every masala film, is to channelize the hero’s energy in the right direction. After studying, Ram first became IPS and then IAS. Is made.
Ram, who has become the collector of his own district, wants to end all corruption in one day, as the heroes of Shankar’s films have been doing. In this affair, he collides with a politician, Mopidev (S.J. Surya), who is very corrupt and the son of Chief Minister Satyamurthy (Srikanth). But the Chief Minister has to atone for some of the sins he committed in his youth and hence he has asked his entire cabinet to be honest. In such a situation, Mopidev is ready to create hell just by relying on his evil mind and dark deeds. How will Ram deal with this political power? Which of his sins has the Chief Minister suddenly started remembering, does it have any connection with the story of Ram? This is the point of the story. Watch the trailer of ‘Game Changer’ here:
Can Shankar change his old game?
From his very first film ‘The Gentleman’, Shankar has been showing a hero who brings social change in one go. This trend continued in films like ‘Indian’, ‘Nayak’ and ‘Shivaji: The Boss’. This time Shankar’s focus is electoral politics using government machinery. The main conflict of the story is on the fact that a politician has been dreaming of sitting on the Chief Minister’s chair since childhood. At how many levels is it ready to spoil the elections and voting process?
The hero of the film is continuously fighting this challenge. There is also an angle of legacy politics versus the public leader. But all this comes in the second half of the film. Where there is an excellent flashback story, which is the life of the story. The work of Ram Charan and actress Anjali in this part is very strong. But this second half is the part where the film seems very dragged out because many elements do not fit with the morality of the hero. In this part, there is the song ‘Jaragandi’ whose picturization is interesting, but the choreography is quite strange.
The hero who is trying to save the integrity of the voting process in the festival of democracy i.e. elections, at one place is asking people to take more notes given in exchange for votes from corrupt politicians this time, so that they become empty. There are some other places in the film where things have gone a little over the top. Making the hero suddenly the Election Commissioner in a convenient storytelling manner can still be digested. But to leave the villain behind, he is also ready to make irregularities with the counting officers.
Such things in the screenplay start drawing attention towards the real process of things rather than the flow of the film. In such a situation, not only does it become difficult to enjoy the film keeping one’s disbelief aside, but the stature of the hero of the film also starts decreasing. On top of that, the problem is that the race between the hero and the villain to defeat each other drags on for a very long time and the wait for the climax keeps getting longer.
But the first half of the film is Shankar’s signature cinema. He had said in an interview during the promotion of ‘Game Changer’ that reels have reduced people’s attention span a lot. Therefore, he has made a film which will work according to this attention span. As a viewer, this was a bit of a cautionary tale from ‘Game Changer’. But the first half of the film is actually very interesting. In this part, there is the story of Ram Charan and Kiara, which is not very interesting. But there is so much happening in front of you on the screen that you remain focused. The whole point of this love story is that this is the first boy in history who takes government permission to meet his girlfriend.
There are lots of colors on the screen, the visuals of the songs are very innovative. The constantly moving camera actually helps the story until it breaks your attention after a certain point. There are shots from many angles in every scene and the film moves very fast. Meaning overall, every 5 minutes, like magician Shankar, he starts showing you a new trick. The first indication of the story being serious occurs in the sequence just before the interval, which is very interesting.
Acting performance is strong
Ram Charan’s work is the lifeblood of ‘Game Changer’. His work in the flashback sequences is very strong. This part is so powerful that it outweighs his work in the entire film. However, his style is strong even in the role of Ram Nandan. The most important task in the role of Shankar’s hero is to keep the scale of his swag very high, so that you can present his tricks believably on screen. Ram Charan has been fully successful in this work.
Kiara’s job is to look beautiful and charming, which she does naturally. The villain of a commercial masala film also has to entertain the public in a strange way, which is a very difficult task. But S.J. Surya has done wonders in this role. Their body language, eyes and movements hold your attention. Even though his own voice may sound strange at some places in Hindi dubbing. Sunil’s comedy in the role of ‘Side Satya’ is funny at some places and Brahmanandam’s cameo also brings a good dose of laughter.
Overall, ‘Game Changer’ is a trick to sell the old spice in a new shiny packet. And everyone knows that Shankar is an old master in showing tricks. It is up to you to decide whether you can watch an average face-off between a powerful politician and an honest officer for three and a quarter hours, relying only on tricks or not.
