The Warrior review: Ram and Aadhi’s impressive performances drown in a weak script

Actor Ram Pothineni kept reiterating how excited he was after listening to the script of The Warrior in multiple interviews while promoting the film. The actor said that he could not contain his excitement and tweeted about it immediately after the script was narrated to him. But after watching the film on screen, it feels like either Director N Lingusamy did not execute the script well, or the actor needs to refine his choice of films.

The Warrior stars Ram Pothineni (playing the role of Sathya) and Krithi Shetty (Mahalakshmi) in the lead roles while actor Aadhi Pinisetty (Guru) plays the antagonist. It is a bi-lingual film made in both Tamil and Telugu.  In case you forget this fact, the poor lip-sync of the actors, particularly actor Nadhiya mouthing dialogues in Tamil, keeps reminding you about it.

The Warrior is a tried and tested formula film which does not offer anything new to the audience. Lingusamy was known for delivering successful commercial films like Run, Pandem Kodi and Awaara in Telugu. Though these films had all the ‘commercial’ elements of fights and songs, and are not different from the films which we have been watching for many years, there was a certain freshness in how he designed his characters and plot. For instance, in Run, he gave a fresh image to actor Madhavan, who was largely seen as an actor with a ‘chocolate boy’ image. And even the villain in it was different from any of the antagonists we’d seen previously.  

So it is disappointing that The Warrior is just a loud film without any subtlety to it. All the characters in this film are unidimensional, without any layers. Sample this: to emphasise that a doctor is akin to a mother who gives lives, you have a loud background song singing the virtues of a doctor. The only freshness that this film offers is that Nadhiya, who plays Ram’s mother in the film, does not ask his son to avoid confrontation with bad people but instead encourages him to go against them. 

The story can be summarised as a clash between two men, one representing the good and the other the evil. Beyond that there is nothing in the story which would excite the audience.

The reason for this is also the fact that one of the crucial twists was not retained as a suspense but used for publicity. The entry of Ram as a police officer just before the intermission is perhaps one of the most unimpressive scenes in any commercial film. How is it supposed to be exciting when you already know that Ram is going to make an entry as a police officer? It is like a magician revealing his trick to the audience before the show and expecting them to be thrilled when the act is being performed.

As in any commercial film, The Warrior has a ‘romantic track’ where a love story is running parallely along with the main story, and this writing comes across as a mere afterthought.

Krithi Shetty who dedicatedly learnt how to whistle just for the role does not get much scope to perform.  

The story being extremely superficial without any element of reality in it, also makes it a mediocre watch. Since the film is not rooted in reality, there is nothing to be invested in. You do not feel bad, sad, scared or anything for anyone. 

However, the performances of actors Ram and Aadhi are impressive. Ram as a police officer makes a great transition and gives a convincing performance. Similarly, Aadhi does justice to his character with his stunning body-language. Devi Sri Prasad does his best to salvage the film with his background score and songs, and he succeeds to an extent.