Hari Hara Veera Mallu

It has been a while since Pawan looked interested enough to play a role well. Maybe the last time he was invested was in Attarintiki Daredi (2013). He refreshingly seems willing to give his best to Veera Mallu. Unfortunately, time and the writing are not on his side. Nidhhi Agerwal’s character, Panchami’s romantic track with Veera, hardly makes you feel anything. The only time Panchami registers is when she's shown as more than a naive Devadasi, only for her to morph back into a weepy girl. Bobby’s Aurangzeb comes across like a token villain who's all bark. The ridiculous ending, setting up things for a sequel, only makes it worse. MM Keeravaani is the true saviour of this story, with his music injecting depth even in flat moments.

First Half Report: The film is impressively executed so far. Action sequences stand out, and Pawan Kalyan delivers a commanding performance. Nidhhi Agerwal is passable. Curious to see how the second half shapes up.

Altogether, Hari Hara Veera Mallu delivers a high-octane blend of action and emotion, with Pawan Kalyan commanding the screen in one of his most intense roles yet, thanks to a gripping narrative by Krish and Jyothi Krishna. Be it the costumes, mannerisms, dialogue delivery etc, he created a sensation on the screen.

Overall, the core point of Hari Hara Veera Mallu had potential to become a very good period action drama and it has a decently engaging first half with a couple of well-executed action sequences. However, the lacklustre second half with poor visual effects and lack of emotional depth and a tedious climax worked against the film. Pawan Kalyan’s stardom may pull in audience to the theatres until the end of the first weekend but it is likely to be difficult for the film to sustain at the box office after the first weekend.

Yet, the much-awaited endeavour arrives in theatres after a long delay reeking only of laziness and juvenility. This is a film in which every element, from start to finish, is soaked in artifice and is completely devoid of the agency or emotional intelligence that one might even find in a regular school play. If the completely lacklustre visual effects are one issue, the narrative that piles on one exaggerated moment after another in the name of intensity makes the whopping 163-minute runtime feel almost punishing. Even for an actor of the stature of Pawan Kalyan, who once enthralled masses simply with his onscreen charisma, the task of carrying such a lifeless film becomes too much to deliver, and it doesn’t help either that he is sleepwalking through his largely mechanical performance.