By Karthik Keramalu
Telugu director Puri Jagannadh made his debut in the year 2000. In 16 years, he has directed 30 films, which is quite an achievement. While most of his films have worked at the box office, some have disappeared without a trace and “Ism” could be one of them.
“Ism” has more than a dozen Puri-isms. The hero (Kalyan Ram) walks around like a loafer and follows the heroine (Aditi Arya) wherever she goes. If the recent Tamil film “Remo” was panned by critics for encouraging stalking, “Ism” would shock you as it takes stalking to newer heights.
Kalyan falls in love with Aditi the minute he sees her. After a couple of serendipitous meetings, he warns her saying he would tie a mangalsutra around her neck if they happened to stumble upon each other again. This is a sample from the first half of the movie. The second half of “Ism” goes on a different track altogether.
The first half of the story is set on an island in the Middle East, and the latter half in Hyderabad. With these two different settings, Puri imagines the lives of a journalist-cum-hacker and a crime lord. Jagapati Babu, who plays the suave Javed Bhai looks mature enough to play a mob boss. But his character is poorly written, and it seems as though he rose to the top of the crime circle purely because of luck.
The Jr. NTR starrer “Temper”, which was directed by Puri, had an important emotional scene in a courtroom. It was about crimes against women. In “Ism”, it’s about corruption and black money. Even here, the hero faces the camera and performs a monologue. The idea of a hero losing his cool worked in “Temper”, but it isn’t the same in “Ism”, as the scene lacks tenacity.
A Puri film usually has at least 10 catch-phrases. “Ism” doesn’t even offer that. The dialogue “Yem Parledu, Yem Parledu,” that Kalyan Ram keeps saying when he finds himself in a sticky spot, stops being funny after a point.
If there has to be one question for Puri, it is this – “Where did Vennela Kishore go in the second half?” The man who brought smiles in the beginning disappeared later on.
The picturisation of “Podaade Poda Poda” is extremely silly and the title track sung by the director is another worthless addition.