Gamechanger is all about Ram Charan—and Ram Charan!

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Take the heading literally, for there are two Ram Charans in this film. One is an IPS officer who has anger management issues, and his name is Ram Nandan. His girlfriend, Dr. Deepika (Kiara Advani) will have nothing to do with him until he takes up a ‘non-violent’ job and he finally becomes an IAS (Indian Administrative Officer). They marry.

Ram Nandan dreams of a corruption-free Andhra Pradesh and is determined to wipe off the corrupt with his power as the Collector. He comes to loggerheads with Bobbili Mopidevi (S.J. Suryah) whose dream is to succeed his father, the current Chief Minister (Srikanth), who is stricken by conscience and the resultant nightmares that he gets, leading to his falling ill.

He too suddenly goes on an anti-corruption drive and this angers all including Mopidevi and elder brother Bobbili Munnimanikyam (Jayaram), who also aspires to the post. Before dying, the CM appoints the honest collector as the next Chief Minister. And all hell breaks loose with this shock.

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Post-interval, we get a seemingly different film about a simpleton named Appanna (again Ram Charan) and how he dreamt of politics that was not about money but about service to the public. His habit of stammering finally undoes him and he is soon murdered. And then it’s time to know that Ram Nandan is none other than Appanna’s son, while his wife, Parvathy (Anjali) is now a mentally-disturbed woman in charge of Dr. Parvathy as a patient!

The rest of the film is about the one-upmanship between Ram Nandan and Mopidevi, which also involves the law, rules and regulations and finally, a prolonged fight sequence.

Absurdly ornate sets, props and extravagant (and noisy) dance numbers embellish this narrative, often springing out of nowhere, and with lyrics that 28 years after the same director’s Indian (dubbed in Hindi as Hindustani) show that he has not lost the tendency to gimmickry in words and music.

The fight sequences are predictable but mammoth, and it’s all about entertainment for the masses, with Ram Charan in full throttle. He scores high in his dual role and is sure to bring in whistles. S.J. Suryah screams and hollers and there is a tinge of humor (for the audience) in the way he is told to act. Kiara Advani is strictly decorative material.

The costumes and visual effects (led by Babu Tyagi) are phenomenal. Gayatri Shinde’s art direction and the production design by Kolla Avinash, S. Rama Krishna, Monika Niggotre and Raveendar are major assets. S. Tirru’s camerawork is top-class and the dialogues (Hindi ones by Rajendra Sapre) play to the gallery. The background score is overdone and the songs (both BGM and them by S. Thaman) are far from catchy.

As we say in Mumbai’s lexicon, “This is a time-pass one time watch!” Packed with templates and tropes for the masses, this is entertainment as we know it, Telugu fillum style. Though it would have scored higher if edited by at least 20 of its 165 minutes.

Rating: ***

Sri Venkateshwara Creations’ Game Changer Produced by: Dil Raju & Shirish Directed by: Shankar Written by: Rajendra Sapre, S. Shankar, Karthik Subbaraj & Vivek  Music: S. Thaman  Starring: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, S.J. Suryah, Anjali, Samuthirakani, Srikanth, Sunil, Jayaram & others

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