8 Vasantalu was released today in theatres alongside Kuberaa. Director Phanindra Narsetti, ahead of the movie's release, made Venkatesh Maha-esque statements about his calibre. He is not a Prashanth Neel or a Vanga by choice, he told us. He boldly asked the audience to see his nuclear-grade creativity for themselves in the "Varanasi action scene" in 8 Vasantalu. To put it mildly, any AD who had the opportunity to be on the sets of KGF or Salaar would have made a better fight scene. This is not to rubbish 8 Vasantalu or Phanindra's craftsmanship, though. Just that the director's strength lies somewhere.
8 Vasantalu is a pack of affected, underdeveloped ideas. There is a sex worker trope, there is an ailing Guru trope (borrowed duly from K Viswanath's filmography), there is a single mother trope, there is a female poet-meets-male poet episode, so on and so forth.
It's not a crime to go wrong, but this film makes unintentionally funny goof-ups. A Telugu-language writer named Sanjay is introduced as a Chalam-like genius with a huge fan base (lol). After two minutes of wordcelling about his Himalayan linguistic abilities, excerpts from his novel 'Rani Malini' are read out. The lines are so bland that any decent contemporary Telugu journalist can write such stuff with some effort. Ironically, those who hype up the novelist's alleged out-of-the-galaxy competence appear to know better Telugu.
The film makes the best use of its geographical span. Or, so it thinks. Kashmir and Ooty become the film's Mani Ratnam Lite obsessions.
8 Vasantalu is produced by Mythri Movie Makers. None of the frames (not at all exaggerating it) looks inventive. In fact, Phanindra Narsetti's criminally-underrated Manu, made more than eight years ago, was superior in every technical aspect. It had outstanding music and framing.
