Game Changer Review – Rediff.com movies

Game Changer is underwhelming in the sense that you see the potential being squandered away by timid filmmaking, observes Arjun Menon.

Shankar’s films don’t aspire for scale, they demand it.

After the disastrously misjudged debacle that was Indian 2, the director seems to have gotten hold of material that can accommodate ‘excess’ as an aesthetic as opposed to a crutch.

Game Changer, featuring Ram Charan, sees him playing two characters united by a special bond, separated by time.

 

Game Changer is a relatively straightforward political drama that is given the over-the-top Shankar treatment, devoid of the personality of his much more effective counterparts in his filmography like, Gentleman (1993) and Mudhalvan (1999).

The film bears an uncanny resemblance to the basic structure of Mudhalvan, featuring a game of one upmanship between a powerful politician and a morally upright citizen.

However, the overwritten, wrought nature of the screenplay, (based on a story by Karthik Subbaraj) doesn’t allow for any of the events to register, and become a colourful reel made by a filmmaker still stuck in his past glory.

Game Changer is closer to the typical Shankar template film we have had in a long time.

In between all the glossy, glitz and grandeur of his recent films, the bloated exterior’s gave little scope for the story to breathe.

Bloated doesn’t even begin to explain this tentpole outing that follows a recently posted IAS officer taking on the son of the outgoing chief minster of Andhra Pradesh.

Ram (Ram Charan) is a typical Shankar protagonist, a man weighed down by his idealism.

We get the usual sermonising, threats and challenges dolled out by the bureaucrat hero towards the corrupt industrialist.

Like in Indian 2, Shankar’s usual penchant for a case-to-case demonstration of each bad guy getting his comeuppance continues here and you can sense his old tricks being worn out by constant repetition and uninspired reiteration.

The film is underwhelming in the sense that you see the potential being squandered away by timid filmmaking.

Scenes don’t end as much get carried over onto the next, and you can sense the intriguing ideas on paper lost in the execution.

Ram is pitted against the system and he has to take on menacingly caricaturish Bobbili Mopidevi (S J Suryah) and his incompetent elder brother Ramachandra Reddy (Jayaram), in what is essentially a wasted comic relief side player part.

Kiara Advani is sidelined and gets a nothingburger part that is unintentionally hilarious, to no fault of the actress. It’s a testament to the terrible one note writing on display.

Thiru and Shankar overindulge with the use of the sliding Mocobot camera movement and the excessive use makes it feel less efficient.

Thaman’s songs have a experimental, percussion-based folk sounding to it that adds some flavour.

Game Changer is a more sensible outing than the abysmal Indian 2 but even I am not sure if that just demonstrates the late career slump faced by Shankar, one of our most popular mainstream filmmakers.

Game Changer, like many of his recent outputs, would have worked wonders in a pre-COVID movie climate but the stale, self referential gimmick has overstayed its welcome.

In between the messy pacing, abrupt songs and unfunny jokes, the intermission scene had me intrigued.

A brief moment revived the almost passive film into a visceral experience and I wanted to punch myself for not giving myself over to the whims of a filmmaker who has meant a great deal to me in the past.

The set piece involving Ram being tied to a police vehicle and fighting off ruffians, with an unexpected twist suggested the possibility for a return to form for the director, somehow grasping at his former glory. But post interval, the sluggish dialoguebaazi and swirling camerawork resumes and the film maintains the same stubborn lowkey randomness.

The way the odd gag adjacent physicality of Sunil’s ‘Side Sathyam’ schtick was played out had me cringing in my seat.

Even in his most wandering, opaque screenplay, Shankar always used to be cognisant of the threshold of some of the outdated jokes. Here, we see Sunil being embarrassingly asked to do a particular thing that would go down as one of most outlandish decisions ever in Shankar’s film career.

Game Changer mistakes opulence for scale, extravagant budget for scope, and broad social commentary for political insight.

The film is a train wreck, saved to an extent by Ram Charan’s commitment. Even he is unable to do much with the wafer-thin drama and is left to wander on screen with no impact.

A labour leader with a stuttering problem hiring a speaker for his party meetings, a mysterious mother figure still filling out rooms with petitions addressed to the chief minister as an aftermath of a past tragedy, and many more interesting ideas are thrown in with genuine conviction. But thanks to the faulty writing, none of them come together.

Game Changer Review Rediff Rating:

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