Readers Write In #448: Bheemla Nayak- Lost in Translation?

By Sai Ganga

Clearly PK was in Gabbar Singh mode and Daggubati in Bhallaldeva zone. But the bigger question is why did they waste money on remake rights ?

 As a telugu speaking yet naturalized Malayali who is a die hard Pawan Kalyan and Prithviraj fan, a lot was riding on when I sat for the movie. I went in with a clean slate to not compare the movies. Boy, only if you could do it..

You know you are in the mass -masala telugu universe when Bheemla Nayak arrives reciting a poem on nature before the actual narrative begins. And this is going to be an exercise in perpetuating the off screen persona that Pawan Kalyan is building.

Then the exposition starts. We are *told* this is a combing exercise with excise and they have a jurisdiction apart from AP police. We are *told* its not smuggling and its taking care of the disadvantaged when Bheemla’s wife buys goods from the tribals etc.

But what truly disappointed me was how the telugu version didn’t even milk the mass moments in the Malayalam version. The JCB scene, the kummati narrative(even with the flashback we don’t get the sense of Bheemla’s extremeist past. But in Malayalam, Anil Nedumangad does a brilliant dialogue delivery and we sense the danger in Prithviraj’s life with his reaction shot Add to it Jakes Bejoy’s haunting score. In Telugu, Rana gives a smirk…), the scene with the suspended lady constable vs Koshy in front of the station, the swag of Koshy’s father arriving at the police station(played superbly by Ranjith) and even the final mud fight one was hoping for.

The JCB scene clearly let us know this man was under control in uniform and with that gone, he is going to let loose. But we don’t get with Bheemla where he was already in Gabbar mode.

Of course, we know Pawan Kalyan is not going to play the weary cop in his last days of retirement and Rana by no imagination cannot have a duel where he can beat up Pawan Kalyan. But the idea behind the malayalam movie was two men who come from different social stratas who tap into their animal spirit and have a go at each other. But here, we get a God instead…

Even the milieu of Attapadi in Kerala played a part in the movie. The women are stock characters who are collateral damage in the ensuing fight. The redeeming point in the telugu version is they’ve cut off the scene where Koshy slaps his wife. Thank God! The final scene echoes the flashback scene and I didn’t know what to make of it.

At a run time of 2hrs 25 minutes, it’s a trimmed down version. Thaman’s score is thumping. Trivikram’s dialogues lack the usual fire though. But its those pauses, those conversations Koshy has, the lone walk he takes which add upto the 2hr 45 min run time of Ayyapanum Koshiyum which leaves you wanting more.