Mahesh's Nenokkadine: Not for every '1'

While, ‘1’ makes a marked departure from the routine comedy track involving veteran Telugu comedians slapping each other to evoke forced humour, loud and garish duets, dialogues about what all the hero can do, it also veers too much into heavy duty mind play which calls for more concentration and attention than regular movie goers want to. It may appeal to a select section of multiplex audience who appreciate experimentation and new age cinema, but for the majority who seek light entertainment, this one’s heartbreaking. The second half feels like we are all lost in a neon-coloured maze where you are only bumping into walls with no sight of a door around the corner.

Gautam (Mahesh) is young, handsome, successful and a rockstar with a big fan base. You think he should be on cloud nine, but he is unhappy as the past keeps haunting him. Every waking moment, he spends fighting off imaginary enemies, people who he thinks are out to kill him, haunting memories from his childhood, hazy moments spent with his parents before they were brutally murdered in Goa.

Gautam is in a state of confusion over what is nijam and ooha (reality and imagination). Ever so frequently, visions of childhood come back to him (featuring Mahesh’s son Gautam who looks like a star written all over him). While the first few reels are truly amusing as we’ve never seen such intelligent scenes in a while in Telugu cinema, one hour into the movie, when Sukumar repeats the nijam-ooha scenes, you start getting restless. Samira (debutant Kriti Sanon), a TV journalist, who keeps tracking the rockstar adds some colour and vibrancy to the goings-on. She is the first to notice Gautam’s obsession with the past. She tries to investigate further and then love happens. Just when Gautam falls in love, he wonders if even if this is true or just one of those things that happens with him (which happens only in his imagination). He has to go to London to unearth a big truth which could give him clues about his past. Car and bike chases, mistaken identities, hallucinations and lots more happen in the second half. Depending on your appetite for the novel stuff, you will love it or go crazy.

Mahesh rarely smiles, laughs or cracks a joke. His constant engagement with the past give a depressive outlook to a lot of scenes. We have read a lot about him working out under a foreign body trainer but none of the scenes display his new body. Of course, the car and bike stunts are pretty amazing. The water sports stunt in Goa is the highlight.

Kriti Sanon, surprisingly, has an almost full length role. For a debutante to get that kind or a role opposite Mahesh is like going straight to occupy the CEO’s seat from a trainee. She manages to look glamorous despite coming across like a working journalist. Mahesh’s son Gautham Krishna gets to sprint most of the time. He hardly has any lines but nevertheless has the screen presence.

Sukumar’s directorial brilliance comes across in the first few scenes involving Samira further confusing Gautam on his hallucination habit and that involving Gautam with the main enemy (Kelly Dorjee). Oh yes, the one-day girlfriend concept that Gautam and Samira apply, the ‘I love you’ Konkani phrase ‘Aww Tuzo Mogh Kortha’ are bound to catch up with Gen Y. Nevertheless, the double lie about the cab driver, too many people are trying to kill Gautam all at the same time and suddenly another cab driver (Posani) add to the madness.

The final verdict is: It is the ‘1’ for those who love something new. For Mahesh fans in B and C centres, this may just not be the ‘1’. Overall, ‘1’ is not for everyone!