Director: Gireesayya

Remakes are often hard to match up to but Kollywood has recently been doing a terrific job of doing faithful remakes. It was recently Nerkonda Paarvai which had the audience clench to their teeth as Thala Ajith engaged in a gripping Court room drama. Directors have learned the art of doing just to an original without taking the essence away at the same time fulfilling the mindsets of the audience. Yet another successful remake would have to be Adithya Varma.

Director Gireesayya has given the audience a sincere remake of Arjun Reddy. Being a debutante, he played safe. He knew that the Telugu film was dearly loved by all, so what could be done without changing anything? He aptly increases the speed of every scene and he adds few minor twists and turns here and there to suit the Tamil sensibilities. The first half is engaging despite the known storyline. While the second half falls flat towards the end but that does not make the three-hour film any less boring with the main reason being the protagonist – Dhruv Vikram.

Adithya Varma or Adi (Dhruv Vikram) is an arrogant, intolerant misogynist who feels he could literally get away with anything. The protagonist is the antagonist here, that is the underlying character. It is love at first sight for this brat when he meets Meera (Banita Sandhu), a first year student. They fall madly in love with each other and here, Meera also opens up about falling in love with him the moment she meets him. The two fall in love, are physically attracted to each other so much so that they would get pizzas delivered into their room by their friends. However, Meera’s father catches them in action and the he fixes her marriage pronto the very next day. What happens next is the storyline.  Now, be it Arjun Reddy or Kabir Singh or Adithya Varma, one cannot deny the fact that the man in this movie is the kind every woman must stay away from. However, the character accepts himself to be toxic and deplorable. If you think about it, the audience glorifies this low-life character to be a hero, but the character development as such shows him as he is – a threat. On the other hand, we never see Meera push him away or say no to his physical moves, it happens with her consent.

Not that it’s right, but it does happen with her full consent. It’s more about what is happening than what should be happening. He is a flawed man and there are men like Varma and there are women like Meera who keep going back to men like him. When the story is not taking sides but is just showing flawed, toxic relationship where a woman is not being smart enough to understand the toxic masculinity in the form of Adithya, what’s the harm in watching it?

But, with the Tamil Version, the best part about the film, even better than the film itself, is Dhruv Vikram. His performance is par excellence as Adi. He is definitely one of the best things about the film. He has performed equally to Deverakonda and as a debutante, he must be lauded for his effort. He literally and figuratively breathes life into the character. Banita Sandhu and Priya Anand could have done so much better as the rest of the supporting cast. Leela Samson as Adithya’s grandmother does justice to her role, her screen presence is charismatic. Overall, Adithya Varma will be a hit for mainly Dhruv’s performance and for beautifully remaking a hard-hitting film about a man with an obnoxious character.

Review: A must-watch for Dhruv Vikram

Rating: 3.5/5