Nani's Gang Leader

Pencil Parthasarathi writes crime novels that do not sell, and nobody takes him seriously. One day five women knock on his door. Each of them lost a relative in the same bank robbery and they want revenge; they need someone to plan it and they have read his books. He agrees. The plans in his novels do not work in life. Vikram Kumar directs. Nani plays Parthasarathi. The idea is the hero's incompetence. The narrative begins in the shape of a revenge film, and the man doing the planning knows nothing, which is where the comedy comes from. The five women are all from different generations and the narrative does not press them into one type; the distance between the oldest and the youngest is its best comic source. In the second half the tone hardens and the film leaves comedy for a revenge narrative. The transition is abrupt for some. Vikram Kumar had been known for films built on time and memory; here he works straight genre comedy. Nani was making one successful film after another in Telugu cinema at the time, and this did well commercially. Who it is for: viewers who like Telugu comedy and revenge stories that break the template. Who it is not for: it runs long, the pace drops in the second half, and the women's pasts are not given enough room.