‘Matka’ film evaluate: A honest Varun Tej can’t salvage this boring drama

Varun Tej in ‘Matka’
| Picture Credit score: Particular Association

How does a enterprise enterprise that doesn’t require a lot funding work, a personality wonders in director Karuna Kumar’s Telugu movie Matka. We promote hope and purchase folks’s belief, explains the protagonist (Varun Tej as Vasu) whose character is impressed by gambler Ratan Khatri, also called the ‘matka’ king. His assertion and the scenes on a practice that precede it, displaying the potential for playing and the way it can flip odd residents into addicts, perk up an in any other case predictable narrative.

Khatri is thought to have initiated matka, a sport of playing as a spin-off of the bets merchants used to put on cotton commerce every day. The sport grew to become in style all through India and is claimed to have had ramifications on the economic system within the Nineteen Seventies. A fiction impressed by the story of this ‘matka’ king, handled like a biopic, holds large scope for drama, a dialogue of fine versus evil, with characters that change sides for private and political features.

Karuna Kumar, who has additionally written the screenplay and dialogues, loosely characterises his protagonist on the traces of Khatri, however reimagines the story in Visakhapatnam, not erstwhile Bombay, to raised swimsuit Telugu cinema. He casts an earnest Varun Tej to painting the principal character and ropes in a gifted technical staff to create a milieu paying homage to the late Fifties to the early Nineteen Eighties. There’s potential to discover the underbelly of crime and its nexus with politics within the port metropolis, replete with a nightclub setting. Nevertheless, what unfolds on display screen is an oft-repeated rags-to-riches story, with almost each transfer spelt out, with little room for surprises.

Matka begins in 1982 when a CBI officer (Naveen Chandra) recaps the journey of Vasu, describing him as a born prison. Cinematographer Kishor Kumar makes use of brooding black and white frames when depicting Vasu’s formative years, from the time he arrives as a refugee from Burma within the late Fifties. The origin story of a gambler/gangster is usually formed by the circumstances he faces, largely pushed by poverty. For Vasu, it’s a matter of survival, each as a refugee and as an inmate of a juvenile house. These parts lay the inspiration for what’s in retailer.

All of the incidents that depict how Vasu will use each alternative to outlive and alongside the best way, anticipate his flip to strike, occur on acquainted traces. The true story begins when Vasu is out of jail, as a younger man, attempting to eke out a dwelling.

A number of characters emerge, some as Vasu’s allies and others who bay for his blood when the time is true. In these segments, there’s an try to current Vasu as a personality who has not fully misplaced his morality. As an illustration, the romance that brews between him and Sujatha (Meenakshi Chaudhary) is characterised by dignity and mutual respect. It could have been attention-grabbing to know extra about their journey collectively. As an alternative, the movie rushes by way of their relationship in its eagerness to discover playing. Meenakshi shines in her position, making the very best use of an underwritten half. If solely the movie had used the potential of her character to raised distinction Vasu’s persona.

Because the movie progresses, neither Vasu’s meteoric rise in wealth and energy nor his subsequent losses make for an engrossing viewing expertise. For anybody who has watched gangster dramas which might be introduced as biopics, be it The Godfather, Nayakan, Sarkar or different movies structured equally, Matka presents nothing new. It finally ends up as a pale shadow of such compelling gangster tales. Even a scene through which Vasu tries to speak about whether or not he’s good or evil is drab, regardless of what he does subsequent. The minute he walks into the room and faces an important character, his intentions are predictable. Varun Tej is honest in portraying Vasu’s quest for survival within the youthful days and internalises the swagger and the depth in his later years. Nevertheless, the writing by no means provides him the scope to painting the gambler because the dreaded character that he might have been. The movie sporadically mentions Vasu as a ringmaster able to powerful selections, and Vasu himself narrates a narrative about being pushed to the brink of survival, however none of that is utilised for good storytelling.

Matka has a number of supporting characters — Satyam Rajesh and Ajay Ghosh among the many allies, John Vijay in yet one more cardboard-ish villainous character and Nora Fatehi as a glamorous ally of a political bigwig— but none of them manages to make an impression.

The point out of Emergency and demonetisation of excessive denomination notes within the mid Nineteen Seventies additionally don’t make a distinction to the flat narrative. The songs (by GV Prakash Kumar) seem misplaced and add to the boredom. The pre-climax and climax parts fall woefully flat for the reason that key characters lay naked their whole gameplan. Because the audiences are conscious of the shifting loyalties of characters, there’s nothing a lot to remain invested in.

Matka finally ends up as a lacklustre interval costume drama and the one solace is that it doesn’t promise a sequel.

(Matka is at the moment operating in theatres)