Gentleman - A Promising Romantic Thriller Which Runs Out of Steam after a While

Sethumadhavan

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It is never easy making a thriller, not only does the film have to maintain a high level of suspense, it also needs to have a fair share of twists and turns, or at least a critical revealing point. Not just that, it’s also essential that post the final or main reveal the film should still have enough steam to take the audience through till the very end. That is why writers and directors who have a good track record with thrillers are always in demand. Mohan Krishna Indraganti’s latest film Gentleman appeared to be a romantic thriller going by the promos which were slickand quite promising. Gentleman sees Mohan Krishna work with Nani once again after AshtaChamma (2008), the film which introduced Nani as an actor. Incidentally this is a totally different outing for the duo but considering Nani’s recent form and Mohan Krishna’s track record overall the expectations from Gentleman were obviously positive.

There are many films which have dealt with two individuals who look alike and who come across each other in their lives. But how many of them have gone on to question if one of them was a good guy and the other a bad guy? Or was it just a case of one person just one person taking on shades of both the hero and the villain? These are the questions that Gentleman tries to sound us off with, something that was evident in the promos itself. Well the promos did deliver, but what about the film itself? Has it gone on to also deliver and meet expectations? Does it turn out to be another successful outing for the combination of Mohan Krishna and Nani? Well let’s find out.

 

The film begins with its two female leads, Catherine (Niveda Thomas) and Aishwarya (SurabhiPuranik) meeting on a flight, quickly going on to strike a good bonding.  Catherine happens to be a VFX artist who’s off to London on work, while Aishwarya is from a business family and during the course of the flight they go on to discuss the respective men in their lives, Gowtham and Jai. The men seem to look alike (played by none other than Nani), something that Catherine gets to notice first. And of course needless to say there’s a twist in the proceedings and very soon the lives of Catherine, Aishwarya, Gowtham and Jai seem to get entangled in the course of proceedings. What happens to Catherine and Aishwarya’s love stories? What’s the connection between Gowtham and Jai and how does the tale finally culminate? Well we get to realize all these and more as the tale unfolds.

 

Well truth be told, the film does indeed have an interesting premise and it starts off quite well. Despite the first half of the film focusing more on the romantic background of the two pairs, it still manages to have us hooked. Mohan Krishna comes up with moments that are interesting and well thought of even if they aren’t really novel. But as the narrative shifts gears and the thriller mode is on the proceedings slowly start taking a dip after some initial promise. The so called big twist isn’t so much of a surprise as such and once its revealed then things get pretty ordinary from there on. For all the talk of hero vs villain and all that jazz it’s a little disappointing to see Mohan Krishna resort to a rather simplified way of bringing things to a close.

 

But despite all this Gentleman still has a few things going in its favour and that makes the film work to an extent. After a long time Mani Sharma manages to impress to impress with his songs and BGM over here. Thankfully the comedy track is decent and it is led by Vennela Kishore playing a “horrible boss” and he does impress. His office scenes, especially the ones with Satyam Rajesh are reasonably funny. Srinivas Avasarala who also made his acting debut in AshtaChamma gets to play a role in contrast with the usual ones that he portrays and is effective. Surabhi is pretty and does justice to her character, though she doesn’t really have much of a scope to perform as such.

Needless to say Nani is an excellent fit in both the avatars, comfortable at handling the various shades to both the characters. With Gentleman he continues to maintain his good form and once again reminds us of his growth as an actor. Niveda Thomas has easily come up with one of the best debuts in Telugu cinema by a leading lady of late, proving that her track record in Tamil and Malayalam cinema was no fluke. Not only has she done justice to her role of substance, she also comes across as very convincing, managing to often emote with her expressions alone.

 

Bottomline

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Gentleman starts well, remains engaging for a major part before crash landing beyond a certain point. It is a film which had potential and could have been way better, but considering that it has a couple of solid performances to boast off and is engrossing for a significant duration, it is enough to merit a watch at the cinemas.

Rating: 3/5