Lakshmi’s NTR movie review: RGV’s inept exercise in propaganda

Director Ram Gopal Varma’s Lakshmi’s NTR picks up almost right where N.T.R: Mahanayakudu ended. The story of the latest biopic begins in the aftermath of NTR’s election defeat in 1989. RGV’s voice over that opens the movie claims that his loyalists and family deserted him soon after the poll debacle. That was even before his controversial second marriage which is the focus of this film.

NTR (P Vijay Kumar) is going through a rough patch and he is on the verge of quitting acting and politics for good. Enter, Lakshmi Parvathi (an ever-sobbing Yagna Shetty). She brings a breeze of fresh air into the life of a lovelorn NTR. Lakshmi requests NTR to allow her to write his biography in a lengthy speech that makes you throw every hope of watching a good and honest movie out the window. You realize that you are in for a yawn-inducing melodrama.

Lakshmi Parvathi was a staunch devotee of NTR. So much so that, apparently, she even had NTR’s picture alongside other deities she worshipped. That explains why she put behind her ambition to write the NTR biography for household chores at NTR’s house. She mollycoddles NTR to an extent where he doesn’t eat unless she hand-feeds him.

NTR was a risk-taker and he never hesitated to do things he believed in. That is what made him a legend in the film industry and the first leader of a regional party that shook the might of the central government. Given the daring attitude of NTR, it is understandable why he stood by Lakshmi, in spite of growing murmurs within his party over his new relationship. He was not the one to worry about what others talk about him. Or he won’t surrender to propaganda machinery that claimed formation of the new power centre in NTR’s ‘kitchen’.

Lakshmi’s NTR, however, fails terribly to create any tension in the film. The film is directed by Ram Gopal Varma and Agasthya Manju. Surprisingly, both the directors were incapable of seeing that none of the scenes was working in the film. With just the exception of the scene where NTR faces public humiliation, the whole film feels like an inept exercise in propaganda.

RGV needs to cultivate new tricks of storytelling, should he ever aspire to make a decent film again. Lakshmi’s NTR is not just a product of bad filmmaking, it is also a poorly researched biopic. We hardly get any inside scoops of what happened behind corridors of power that led to the downfall of the Superman of Indian cinema. The film just restates already available information without any value addition.

A couple of scenes that borders on a parody of NTR’s family drew some laughs. And then I realized the film was a wasted opportunity. Lakshmi’s NTR could have been the Deadpool of NTR canon. It could have been the antidote for NTR fatigue. Instead, it makes Krish’s films look like masterpieces.