Skanda review: An overdose of meaningless adrenaline, absurd comedy, and violence

You must have seen a recent WhatsApp where the skeleton of a truck keeps on moving forward throwing out the driver and heavy load in the process of negotiating a curve.

Director Boyapati Srinu is currently in that zone for inexplicable reasons. Of course, you can’t skip away from naming Akhanda’s (2021) box office success.

But experimenting with an action entertainer with someone who is as naive as Ram Pothineni (for his chocolate boy looks), has completely ruffled the feathers of many.

Telangana Chief Minister Ranjith Reddy (Sharath Lohithaswa) and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Rayudu (Ajay Purkar) are former-friends-turned-rivals who develop a grudge against each other for the reason that their children fell in love. Subsequently, the pair elopes to explore a new world.

Meanwhile, political science student Ram (Ram Pothineni), who keeps pulling the leg of Sreeleela, kidnaps the two daughters of the chief ministers.

Why does he kidnap the girls? Why does businessman Rudraganti Ramakrishna Raju languish in jail awaiting his death sentence for crimes that he hasn’t committed? — forms the story.

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Analysis

Skanda is all red everywhere on the screen from the word go.

You can’t expect breezy laughter or joy on the faces —kind of a thing when it is helmed by director Boyapati Srinu. In fact, you have to forget logic for more than two and a half hours and sit with characters to see what’s next.

Goons keep flying when hit with weird objects — the common sight in Skanda though, followed by dialogues mouthed in rhythmic chimes.

And you might laugh out loud at the hero uttering the dialogue so seriously. Just ensure that you are not seated among Boyapati fans in the hall!

Skanda is a conventional action drama where you get to see the protagonist vouching for his family’s pride and going the extra mile to save the honour.

Like the director lampooned the serious characters in all his previous outings, he does it again with Ram Pothineni. The protagonist goes on a killing spree taking down as many as 100 armed people at once, and with one weapon!

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Performances

Ram Pothineni looks quite off with his rugged look. And you expect a political science student to be sensible at least for the looks. But he is quite the opposite.

The bulky avatar shows a new Ram Pothineni on the screen. At one point, you forget that it is Ram Pothineni on the screen.

You might even rise up from your seat involuntarily to whistle at action sequences of heroes smashing baddies black and blue. It’s all Balayya and not Ram Pothineni.

It’s obvious why Sreeleela is cast. She is more of a dancer than a female lead in the film.

Saiee Manjrekar plays an extended guest role as Parineeta, the daughter of businessman Ramakrishna Raju (Srikanth Meka).

Most of the characters, like Indraja and Gouthami, remain tight-lipped as if they are all muted to make action centre stage rather than giving impetus to drama.

Verdict

Skanda is a regular, routine and formulaic narrative of Boyapati Srinu. It induces meaningless opium into mass audiences with a logicless story and absurd comedy and might even spoil the day of revelry during Ganesh immersion.

(Views expressed here are personal.)