'Sarkaru Vaari Paata' review: Comedy works, message doesn't

Sarkaru Vaari Paata

Telugu (Theatres)

Director: Parasuram

Cast: Mahesh Babu, Keerthy Suresh, Vennela Kishore, Samuthirakani

Rating: 2.5/5

It’s so good to see Mahesh Babu play a goofball. He seems to have discovered a bottomless barrel of fun. And, hence, whenever he puts on his funny hat, he delivers. If the writing supports his comedic vision, he’ll hit out of the park.

Even when he utters inane and cringeworthy lines, he makes it sound like dorm room banter. There’s a particular scene in ‘Sarkaru Vaari Paata’ where Mahesh (Babu), receives a text message from his crush, Kalavathi (Keerthy Suresh), while he’s pouring his heart out to his assistant, Kishore (played by Vennela Kishore). On the surface, it’s pretty mundane, but Babu’s retorts are on point and it made me take a mental note of his timing.

The humour lies in the dry fact that Kishore sees through the false stories that Kalavathi, a gambler, builds to extract more moolah from Mahesh, who’s a money lender. Kalavathi doesn’t make any dime at the poker table. And yet, she becomes addicted to it. Ah, maybe, that’s how people get attached to such habits. It doesn’t matter whether the results are positive or not, they go down the dark road till they find what they’re looking for.

Kalavathi uses every trick in the book to stay above trouble. She can probably befriend Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) from the Hollywood thriller ‘Uncut Gems’ (2019). They’re both gamblers who don’t mind losing. And their unwritten philosophy is to go big or go home. And the most important thing that connects their ideologies is that they borrow money from all the people they know and never repay – because they’re always broke.

As long as ‘Sarkaru Vaari Paata’ centers on Kalavathi, Mahesh, and Kishore, it’s watchable. The jokes obviously write themselves and the movie moves smoothly without shaking this way and that. But we’ve to pay a price for everything and the ridiculous bits that are stacked on top of each other fall apart at once as soon as director Parasuram brings out the microphones for Mahesh to give speeches on the grisly nature of financial crimes. Honestly, this road is darker than the one that leads to gambling. What’s the need for a movie made of this scale to have a villain who’s just another corporate monster?

Rajendranath (Samuthirakani), when challenged, regarding his refusal to pay back the loan that he’s taken from a bank, tells Mahesh that nobody can touch him. He takes the lender on a short trip and gives a ringside view of the life he lives. To put it briefly, Rajendranath knows that the bank would rather stay away from him than ring him up to ask for dues. He’s a premium customer, after all. But he’s not the kind of person who gets exclusive offers on credit cards. He’s gone way ahead of that curve. Instead, his loans get written off regularly. Do you now understand his power?

‘Sarkaru Vaari Paata’ could have been a jolly good ride, like ‘Jathi Ratnalu’ (2021), if it had focused extensively on the small fish that it catches in the beginning. But there appears to be a lot of pressure to punch above its weight. And some of its logical bullets are so empty that they make no sense at all – Mahesh separates a woman and a man while they’re kissing to ask for the money that he’s owed and chases after the guy when he takes to his heels. And an hour later, he beats up a bunch of recovery agents for harassing a middle-aged couple.
Of course, the young and the old can’t be compared, but there’s a silly point that Mahesh misses here – he also resorts to hurting his clients. What’s the difference between a heartless recovery agent and the protagonist then? ‘Geetha Govindam’ (2018), helmed by Parasuram again, was studded with similar flaws.

This filmmaker’s heroes lack accountability. They tell their detractors to follow a certain path which they don’t do themselves. If Parasuram wants to make more action movies with A-list stars, he needs to look at what he’s putting on the table before serving it.

Alas, the wait for a perfect comedy, featuring Babu and Kishore continues!