Nag breathes fresh air into Oopiri

Akkineni Nagarjuna breaks a new ground by essaying the role of a quadriplegic in Oopiri and receives tremendous response from all over the world

Hyderabad: Superstar Nagarjuna seems to be in a mood to experiment and his last three films ‘Manam’ to ‘Soggade Chinni Nayana’ and now the most-talked-about film ‘Oopiri’ is different as chalk and cheese. While the first two were blockbusters, his latest Oopiri has drawn huge openings and critical acclaim. The scion of Akkineni family reprised the role of French film and theatre actor Francois Cluzet in the remake of French film ‘The intouchables’ with ease and showcased his acting repertoire besides striking a perfect balance between star-centric movies and performance-driven stuff.

A star hero who attained the image of a famed onscreen lover boy but confining himself to a chair and just relying on his expressions to convey a gamut of emotions has left audience spellbound. “Nagarjuna’s top-rated performance made the film one of the most endearing films in recent times all over the world and for sure he raised the bar of Telugu stars,” says director Ravi Chavali, who feels that such performance-oriented roles will not dent his star image.

“That’s a misconception, because such roles bring in more new viewers to his side adding up to his existing following since its once-in-a-lifetime role. In fact, Nagarjuna has joined the league of Telugu legends like NTR and ANR who are still etched in the minds of Telugu viewers for their varied performance-oriented roles, than routine star movies.

Nagarjuna has always experimented with roles like Annamayya and Sri Ramadasu to stand tall as a performer among his colleagues and his attempt would inspire Gen Y stars to take up challenging roles once-in-while, to showcase their histrionic skills,” he adds. Another young director Manjunath recalls an interesting scene from the film that drew instant applause from audience as they were swayed by his character in Oopiri.

“In one particular scene Nagarjuna who is confined to a chair is unable to get a full view of Eiffel Tower, but subsequently in a car chase, he gets the chance to have a full view of the famed tower and audience clap in theatre spontaneously joining his happiness onscreen. That’s the kind of impact this role has made.

Except for Nagarjuna, no other Telugu star had dared to do such an off-beat role. We have seen Tamil stars like Kamal and Vikram alternating between mass and class movies, now Nagarjuna has joined their bandwagon. By taking up a ground-breaking film, Nagarjuna has inspired directors like us, to think out of the box and break the monotony of Telugu cinema” he concludes.