Sakthi: ‘A1 star’ NTR Jr’s masterclass in going from 0 aura points to -1,000 effortlessly

Chiranjeevi is an extremely courageous actor. Not many are as brave as he is. Just think about it: it takes immense valour for someone to agree to work with director Meher Ramesh after he delivered one of the worst Telugu movies of the last decade. Unperturbed, Chiranjeevi went ahead and did Bhola Shankar (2023) with him. Of course, Bhola Shankar was also bad and bombed at the box office. But the megastar showed that Meher had grown as a filmmaker and managed to create something that’s not as loathsome as his “magnum opus” Sakthi, starring NTR Jr and Ileana D’Cruz.

Child: Mom, can we watch Magadheera in the theatre?
Mother: We have Magadheera at home.
The “Magadheera” at home: Sakthi!

Sakthi stars NTR Jr and Ileana D’Cruz. (Credit: IMDb)

It’s not that Sakthi is a rip-off of SS Rajamouli’s Magadheera (2009). But a quick skim of the movie reveals that director Meher Ramesh, producer C Aswini Dutt, and actor NTR Jr were basically aiming to create something similar, trying to cash in on the popularity of period fantasy actioners kickstarted by Magadheera. However, it only proved that it’s not easy to create something like the 2009 actioner, especially when all one has are ambitions, sans any clarity or idea of how to achieve them.

Sakthi is one of those movies that doesn’t care that it has a story to tell. Instead, it keeps jumping from one scene to the next, as if it’s in no hurry. After a point, it becomes clear why Sakthi is so relaxed: it has little to say, and if it starts telling its story, the movie will end in no time.

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The sakthi-less Sakthi

Aishwarya (Ileana D’Cruz) is the free-spirited daughter of central Home Minister Mahadevaraya (Prabhu), whose family guards the jwalamukhi, a divine diamond that’s connected to the Shakta pithas. It was while searching for this jwalamukhi and the Rudra trident that Egyptian King Mukthar (Sonu Sood) was murdered a few decades ago. Enraged, his wife Faqtooni (Pooja Bedi) has vowed to get hold of them and destroy India. To do this, she has been giving rigorous training to her sons, Raakha (Daniel Kaleb) and Wasim (Vidyut Jammwal). They decide to kidnap Aishwarya when she is on a trip with her friends. Meanwhile, a tourist guide, Sakthi Swaroop (NTR Jr), joins Aishwarya and her gang. Going forward, he not only rescues her from Faqtooni’s men but also plays a crucial role in protecting the jwalamukhi.

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Sakthi is as bizarre a movie as it can be. It tries to be a fantasy film but fails. It also tries to be a spy actioner and fails there too. It then somehow tries to find victory as a romantic movie. But we can imagine the result, right? Yes, it fails miserably there as well, leaving behind a bunch of unimpactful songs placed at odd points.

Overacting, underacting

In just about three minutes at the start, Pooja Bedi delivers more performance per square foot than NTR Jr does across the entire movie. Between her overacting and NTR Jr’s barely acting, Sakthi struggles to catch a break. In fact, pretty much every person either overacts or underacts here, making it a tiresome experience.

NTR Jr and SP Balasubramanyam in Sakthi. (Credit: IMDb)

And Raakha is the best of all. He simply screams all the time, like my boy Kanguva (Suriya). In an early scene, we see something that looks like chilli powder solution being poured on him (I am sure it’s some magical liquid, but can’t say for sure); then they pour what appears to be Ujala detergent liquid on him. He screams out loud both times. But he has no reaction when Faqtooni makes two venomous snakes bite his chest. Sure, Meher’s idea must have been to highlight his villainy, but these scenes are sure to make one LOL. Plus, the juvenile CGI only makes matters worse.

In addition, Vidyut Jammwal provides early glimpses of his overacting potential, which we witnessed in depth in his recent clip condemning the attack on Tiger Shroff.

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Faqtooni speaks in Hindi and even “flawless” Telugu to her people. Sure, making her speak in Telugu must be for the local audience to understand the film. But why are these Egyptians talking among themselves in Hindi in between? Do the makers not know that Hindi isn’t Egypt’s language?

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Sakthi’s editing is so “futuristic” that most adjacent shots don’t appear linked to each other. But shoddy editing and CGI are honestly the smallest of the movie’s shortcomings. From ridiculous plot devices to comedy scenes that don’t make us laugh even if tickled, Sakthi is a festival of everything that could go wrong in a movie. Aside from the torturous humour bombarded at us through scenes featuring NTR Jr and Ileana, separate “comedy tracks” run in parallel that are equally excruciating, if not more so.

What makes things worse is that Aishwarya is as annoying as Hasini (Genelia) from Bommarillu (2006). During the initial acts, she hates Sakthi Swaroop. Then, out of the blue, she falls in love with him simply because he gave her a bottle of vodka to drink when she was unconscious. Wow! What a cinematic marvel!

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Humorous action scenes

Even if the movie’s comedic scenes aren’t funny, the fight scenes sure are. Whenever a bazooka makes a guest appearance, be prepared to have the laugh of your life, particularly seeing NTR Jr’s moves. At one point, he jumps from atop an autorickshaw upon seeing a bazooka being fired at him, and lands in front of the vehicle. But then the autorickshaw behind him gets blasted. Why did the rocket skip him and go for the auto behind? Maybe the missile is an “A1 fan.”

Oh yes, before his PR team and fans popularised the moniker “Man of Masses,” NTR Jr’s peeps had tried to sell him as the “A1 Star” in Sakthi, giving him a promotion from the earlier “Young Tiger” title. However, it sounded so ridiculous that it immediately cost him 1,000 aura points. Worse still, NTR Jr’s intro in the movie is so unimpactful, and his look so basic, that he drained out more aura points.

At a certain juncture, Sakthi is reintroduced as an undercover agent. I don’t understand cinema logic. As soon as one of the central characters — mainly the heroine — learns that the hero is an undercover agent, the man will start blowing his undercover image left, right, and centre, and start flaunting the fact that he is an agent everywhere. So what was the point of being undercover at the start?

Anyway, logic has no place in Sakthi, where the hero stands in the middle of an area under crossfire without cover. And even though the villain’s men are all armed, not a single bullet lands on the hero. Such waste fellows Raakha has with him! However, even Wasim is no better. Despite having an AK-47, he keeps shooting at Sakthi’s bulletproof vest while his face is completely exposed.

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Regardless, had the film been released today, it would have been celebrated more because it panders to the right-wing extensively, cashing in on Hindu mythology and attributing everything, including the country’s safe existence, to the divine. However, Meher Ramesh and the writers have basically exploited Hindu gods to create plot points and moments when they don’t know how else to logically move the story forward. Whenever they fail to employ logic and reasoning, they put everything on God’s head and have characters say, “It’s all part of the almighty’s plan.”

A disastrous NTR Jr

As I mentioned before, Sakthi Swaroop’s look is very dull and basic throughout; it sometimes even resembles Shah Rukh Khan’s hilarious getup as superstar Omiswaami in the “Yenna rascala, mind it!” scene from Om Shanti Om (2007). But if Sakthi Swaroop’s look is basic, Rudra’s (also played by NTR Jr) is far worse, making it seem as though the actor is participating in a school fancy-dress competition.

I think the producer lost trust in the movie at some point, as shown by shoddy CGI and temple-festival visuals that look lifted from old videos. I mean, how can one trust Meher Ramesh when his filmmaking brilliance is such that, to show something has power, he simply makes it glow. Whether it’s the jwalamukhi or Rakha’s eyes, everything glows as if it’s attached to filament bulbs.

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Anyway, how about we dedicate next week to NTR Jr’s RRR (2022) co-star Ram Charan and look back at his Hindi debut opposite Priyanka Chopra, which was more disastrous than the bazookas in Sakthi?

Memories of Blunder is a column in which we dissect some of the worst South Indian movies and performances of all time. No offence to anyone whose name surfaces here. They may all have potential, but they blew it that one time. However, don’t play the song if you can’t face the music, right?