Jayaram Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Retro’ (2025), starring Suriya, Pooja Hegde, Joju George, Jayaram, Sujith Shankar, Gajaraj and Vidhu

May 3, 2025

by Carla Hay

Suriya and Jayaram in “Retro” (Photo courtesy of Prime Media)

“Retro” (2025)

Directed by Karthik Subbaraj

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India, from the 1960s to 1998, the action film “Retro” features a predominantly Indian cast of characters (with some white people and some black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An aggressive thug has conflicts with his lady love, who wants him to give up his criminal lifestyle, and he gets an early release from prison so that he can infiltrate a “fight club” cult on a remote island, where he impersonates a comedy therapist.

Culture Audience: “Retro” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and don’t mind watching movies that are too long and too stupid.

Vidhu in “Retro” (Photo courtesy of Prime Media)

A complete tonal mess, “Retro” can’t decide if it wants to be a brutal action film or a wacky lighthearted comedy. It’s a strange and idiotic story about a gloomy thug who has to learn how to laugh. Song-and-dance numbers are awkwardly thrown into the mix.

Written and directed by Karthik Subbaraj, “Retro” has too much going on and yet none of it is meaningful or makes any sense. And to make matters worse, this wretched movie has an overly indulgent 168-minute runtime. If you watch this abomination from beginning to end, you might never get back that precious time and valuable brain cells.

“Retro” (which takes place in India) begins in the city of Mudarai, in the 1960s, when an orphan named Paarivel “Paari” Kannan is adopted as a baby by Sandhya (played by Swasika), the wife of a ruthless gangster named Thilagan (played by Joju George), who wants nothing to do with raising this child. The movie’s cast members who have the role of Paari are Nithran Sai as pre-teen Paari, Harish as teenage Paari, and Suriya as adult Paari. For reasons that are not explained in the movie, Paari finds it difficult to smile, so a big part of the plot is about his lady love and other people trying to get him to smile.

Sandhya dies when Paari is a teenager. Her dying wish was for Paari to learn how to smile. During the funeral, Paari saves Thilagan from an attack. As a result, Thilagan begins to respect Paari and starts grooming him to become part of Thilagan’s criminal activities. As a teenager, Paari meets and falls in love with Rukimini “Rukku” Paari (played by Aavni), who will become his future wife.

Thilagan remarries in 1989. He and his second wife have three biological sons (played by Nithish, Thirshiv and Sanjay), while adult Paari has followed Thilagan into the criminal lifestyle. In 1993, Paari reconnects with his sweetheart Rukmini (played by Pooja Hegde), who is now a veterinarian, and he asks her to marry him. Rukmini says she will only marry Paari if he leaves behind his life of crime and becomes a upstanding, law-abiding person.

Paari agrees to this ultimatum and gets the blessing of Rukmini’s widowed father (played by Singampuli) to marry Rukmini. The wedding ceremony of Paari and Rukmini is a joyous celebration—except that Rukmini and her father are uncomfortable that Thilagan has shown up with his gangster cronies, after Thilagan was explicitky told not to bring his criminal associates to the wedding. Paari makes a profuse apology to Rukmini and promises that nothing will bad happen.

And that’s the moment when you know that something very bad is going to happen. At the wedding reception, Paari tells Thilagan that Paari no longer wants to be a criminal and that it was a “mistake” to get involved in criminal activities. Thilagan’s response is to slap Paari very hard and call him a “bloody orphan.” As if to prove that he’s done with his life of crime, Paari refuses to give information in an upcoming arms deal that has the code name Gold Fish.

Things get worse when Thilagan’s gangster cronies start attacking Paari, who fights back in self-defense with a machete. Thilagan tries to kill Rukmini, but Paari cuts off one of Thilagan’s lower right arm at the elbow By the end of this bloody brawl, a few of the gangsters are dead. Paari gets arrested. A horrified and disgusted Rukmini refuses to talk to Paari before he is hauled off to jail. She cuts off all contact with him.

Paari is convicted of murder and sentenced to prison, where one of the movie’s cheesy musical numbers takes place in a prison yard. While he’s in prison, Paari hears that Rukmini and her father have moved to another state in India. Five years pass while Paari is in prison. During those five years, he has heard that Rukmini’s father has died, and she is now working for a non-governmental organization.

The next plot development is when “Retro” starts to get bizarre and stupid: Paari is given an early release from prison because he’s being sent to a mysterious island, where he’s told he has to be involved in amateur fighting. It sounds too good to be true to Paari, but he takes the offer anyway because he understandably wants to get out of prison.

Meanwhile, Thilagan (who now uses a robotic prosthetic right arm) has ordered some of his goons to find Rukmini. Why? Because Thilagan is still angry that Paari quit the gangster lifestyle. Thilagan wants to use Rukmini as bait to convince Paari to go back to being a criminal. It’s a nonsensical plan that ends up being a subplot that goes nowhere.

Shortly after Paari has gotten out of prison, Paari meets Dr. Chaplin Lolly (played by Jayaram), who has the nickname the Laughing Therapist because Dr. Lolly does stand-up comedy as part of his “therapy sessions. Paari doesn’t remember Dr. Lolly at first. Dr. Lolly reminds Paari that they first met when Paari was in prison and Dr. Lolly did a stand-up comedy show for the prison inmates. When Dr. Lolly asked Paari why Paari wasn’t laughing during this comedy show, Paari told Dr. Lolly that he ever laughed it was during a part of his childhood that was too long ago to remember.

The movie takes a turn for the worse when Paari hires Dr. Lolly to go with Paari and some cohorts to Black Island, where they settle in at a place called Laughter Hospital. Paari pretends to be Dr. Lolly and does some terrible stand-up comedy for hospital patients, where Paari wears a red clown nose and a bowler hat. Paari tries to force himself to laugh during these shows. It’s as cringeworthy as it sounds.

And what a coincidence: Rukmini shows up at the hospital. She’s still a veterinarian, but she’s also now an anti-poaching activist because this island has a lot of wildlife that is being poached. The island is ruled by Lord Milton (played by Gajaraj) and his son Freddie Milton (played by Sujith Shankar), an animal abuser who sexually harasses Rukmini. And you know what that means: Paari is going to fight Freddie.

There’s also a moronic subplot about a cult on the island called the Rubber Cult, which has Rubber War games that area combination of gladiator style and mixed-martials arts, with the game participants wearing rubber suits. The opponents in these games are rich people versus enslaved poor people. The rich people wear black rubber suits. The poor people wear red rubber suits.

Paari is forced to be on the “underdog” poor people’s team. An egotistical lout named Michael Mirasu (played by Vidhu), who likes to call himself King Michael, is in charge of these games. The action scenes during the Rubber War games are unrealistic and an assault on viewers’ intelligence.

The acting in “Retro” is atrocious. The film editing is extremely sloppy. The screenplay and direction are beyond incompetent. All of this adds up to “Retro” being convoluted junk that is no fun to watch and should be avoided at all costs.

Prime Media released “Retro” in select U.S. cinemas on May 1, 2025, the same day that the movie was released in India.

Review: ‘Game Changer’ (2025), starring Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S. J. Suryah, Srikanth and Sunil

January 17, 2025

by Carla Hay

Ram Charan in “Game Changer” (Photo courtesy of Zee Studios)

“Game Changer” (2025)

Directed by S. Shankar

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Andhra Pradesh, India, the action film “Game Changer” features a predominantly Indian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A district magistrate becomes a politician in his fight against corruption.

Culture Audience: “Game Changer” will appeal mainly to people who don’t mind watching mindless action movies that are too long.

Ram Charan and Kiara Advani in “Game Changer” (Photo courtesy of Zee Studios)

It’s ironic that the title of this movie is “Game Changer,” because everything about this bloated film uses the same formulas as the worst action movies about a hero fighting corruption: It’s loud, obnoxious, idiotic, and too long. The musical numbers in this 165-minute cinematic abomination are tacky and awkwardly placed. And the acting performances are utterly generic.

Directed by S. Shankar and written by Vivek Velmurugan, “Game Changer” takes place in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. That’s where district magistrate Ram Nandan (played by Ram Charan)—a former police officer who is based in the city of Visakhapatnam—acts like a one-man army against criminals. He uncovers a drug smuggling operation and other criminal activities.

“Game Changer” is overloaded with scenes of people shouting at each other and fighting each other. There’s a subplot about a rivalry between the unscrupulous sons of Andhra Pradesh’s chief minister Bobbili Sathyamoorthy (played by Srikanth), who is shallow cliché of a corrupt patriarch in power. Elder son Bobbili Munimanikyam (played by Jayaram) is the home minister of Andhra Pradesh. Younger son Bobbili Mopidevi (played by S. J. Suryah) is the minister of Andhra Pradesh.

At one point, Ram decides to run for political office at the urging of people in the community. It leads to a long-winded and annoying part of the movie where over-the-top things happen, such as a one of Ram’s enemies using a bulldozer to destroy an election building. All the violence in the movie looks unrealistic, including the fake-looking visual effects.

Ram is a bachelor whose family has been pressuring him to get married. Strangely, Charan also plays the role of Ram’s father Appanna, who is the founder of the Abhyudayam Party. Appana’s wife/Ram’s mother Parvathy (played by Anjali) has a one-note role in the movie: nagging Ram to find a wife.

Ram’s love interest is Deepika (played by Kiara Advani), a medical doctor who is seen dancing more than doing actual work as a doctor. Charan and Advani do not have believable romantic chemistry as Ram and Deepika, so the love affair in “Game Changer” just falls flat. Ram also has a close friend named “Side” Satyam (played by Sunil), who is a fairly forgettable character.

The sound mixing in “Game Changer” is horrendous, with too many scenes that blare music and sound effects at extremely irritating levels. It’s an overly long movie that has choppy film editing in scenes that abruptly end and then incoherently go to the next scene. No amount of editing could erase all the garbage filmmaking that’s in “Game Changer,” which is a complete waste of time for anyone who watches this rotten spectacle.

Zee Studios released “Game Changer” in U.S. cinemas and in India on January 10, 2025.

Review: ‘Hi Nanna,’ starring Nani, Mrunal Thakur and Kiara Khanna

December 31, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Hi Nanna”

Directed by Shouryuv

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Indian cities of Mumbai and Coonoor, the dramatic film “Hi Nanan” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A single father tells his 6-year-old daughter the story of what happened to her mother, after the daughter’s life is saved by a woman who insists that he tell the story.

Culture Audience: “Hi Nanna” will appeal primarily to people who are fans the movie’s headliners and are interested in watching intriguing movies about how family members cope with separations.

Mrunal Thakur and Shilpa Tulaskar in “Hi Nanna” (Photo courtesy of Vyra Entertainments)

“Hi Nanna” requires some suspension of disbelief in this frequently melodramatic story about the mystery of a mother separated from her family. However, at the center of the film is what makes it shine: a sweet and compelling tale of long-lasting love. It’s by no means a groundbreaking film but it’s an enjoyable movie for viewers who like movies about people who could be reunited with family members.

“Hi Nanna” (which means “Hi Dad” in Telugu) is the feature-film debut of director Shouryuv, who co-wrote the movie’s screenplay with Bhanu Dheeraj Rayudu, Vasanth Sameer and Pinnamaraju. In the city of Mumbai, India, a successful fashion photographer named Viraj (played by Nani) is a single father who has a very close bond with his intelligent and adorable 6-year-old daughter Mahi (played by Kiara Khanna), who says that Viraj is her best friend. Viraj is a kind and patient parent, but there’s one thing that gets him upset: when Mahi asks him to tell her the story about what happened to her mother.

For as a long as possible, Viraj has been postponed telling Mahi (who has cystic fibrosis) the story of what happened to her mother. But now that Mahi is 6, she is old enough to keep asking questions and wanting answers. At school, she is the subject of gossip because of her absentee mother. Viraj promised Mahi that he would tell her the entire story if her grades at school are good enough for Mahi to be at the top of her class in academics.

Mahi achieves that goal, but when she tells Viraj and shows him her academic grades, he once again delays telling her the whole story, by saying that he’s too tired and will tell her later. Mahi and Viraj have an argument. The next morning, Viraj sees that Mahi is missing with their Golden Retriever dog Pluto. Viraj correctly assumes that Mahi has run away from home, so he frantically goes looking for her.

That morning, Mahi is walking with Pluto on a street. The dog breaks free of its leash and runs into traffic. Mahi runs after the dog and is nearly hit by a truck. But just at that moment, a woman in her late 20s or early 30s saves Mahi’s life. The dog has avoided getting hit and also safe.

The woman introduces herself as Varsha (played by Mrunal Thakur), who asks Mai where her parents are. Mahi tells Varsha why she ran away from home. Varsha is sympathetic but says that Mahi’s father has to be contacted to take Mahi home. Mahi gives Varsha the name and phone number of Viraj. Varsha takes Mahi to a nearby restaurant while they wait for him.

When Viraj shows up, he is relieved to see Mahi but seems a little caught off-guard and annoyed when he sees Varsha and finds out that Mahi has told Varsha about their family issues. Varsha insists that Mahi cannot leave with Viraj until Viraj tells Mahi the entire story of Mahi’s mother. Mahi thinks this woman is being very annoying and intrusive, but he complies with her demand because he doesn’t want to upset Mahi any more.

The rest of “Hi Nanna” alternates between showing flashbacks of Viraj’s volatile romance with Mahi’s mother and the present day. Varsha and Mahi have an instant connection, so tey start to become friends. The more time that Varsha spends with Mahi and Viraj, the more she starts to love them and they begin to feel like a family.

Viraj finds himself falling in love with Varsha, but there’s a big problem: She’s already engaged to marry a physician named Dr. Aravind (played by Angad Bedi), with the wedding happening in the near future. Varsha’s overbearing parents (played by Shilpa Tulaskar and Jayaram) approve of this arranged marriage. They think Dr. Avarind would make a more suitable husband for Varsha than Viraj.

The mystery of who and where Mahi’s mother is becomes very easy to solve when this mother is seen in flashbacks. However, the answers to why she is not in Mahi’s life happen much later in the film. It’s enough to say that there’s a very soap-opera-like explanation that is very far-fetched but not beyond the realm of possibility to happen in real life.

The cast members in “Hi Nanna” give very good (but not outstanding) performances. Khanna is a talented actress who can convey convincing emotions without the forced phoniness that makes many child performances very irritating. “Hi Nanna” also has admirable portrayals of a single father taking care of an underage daughter that aren’t often seen in most family-oriented movies. “Hi Nanna” has some heartbreak, but it’s overshadowed by the movie’s heartwarming qualities.

Vyra Entertainments released “Hi Nanna” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on December 7, 2023. Netflix will premiere the movie on January 4, 2023.

Review: ‘Ravanasura,’ starring Ravi Teja

April 13, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Ravanasura”

Directed by Sudheer Varma

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Hyderabad, India, the action film “Ravanasura” features a predominantly Indian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A defense attorney agrees to a wealthy woman’s request to represent her father who has been accused of murder, but all is not what it seems to be in this twist-filled story.

Culture Audience: “Ravanasura” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Ravi Teja and don’t mind watching idiotic action films that drag on for far too long.

Jayaram and Pujita Ponnada in “Ravanasura” (Photo courtesy of Abhishek Pictures)

In a world filled with terrible movies, “Ravanasura” has some of the most moronic plot twists you could ever see. The acting performances are horrendous. And this 140-minute action flick is too long for a movie this vapid. Perhaps the only real creative thought that was put into “Ravanasura” was for the choreography and staging of the occasional musical numbers, but the song lyrics in these musical scenes are utterly witless and generic.

Directed by Sudheer Varma (who co-wrote the atrocious screenplay with Srikanth Vissa), “Ravanasura” has a major plot twist that’s revealed about halfway through the movie and changes the entire trajectory of the story. It’s enough to say that this plot twist is so stupid, it wants viewers to forget that DNA testing exists. The plot twist also doesn’t take into account that certain characters have different body sizes and different heights. Other plot twists in the movie are much more predictable, but the big “shocker” in “Ravanasura” will just have viewers rolling their eyes in disgust at how bad this idea is.

In the beginning of “Ravanasura” (which takes place in Hyderabad, India), criminal defense attorney Ravindra, nicknamed Ravi (played by Ravi Teja), works as a junior lawyer with his ex-girlfriend Kanaka Mahalakshmi (played by Faria Abdullah), who is Ravi’s boss at the small law firm owned by Kanaka. Ravi and Kanaka briefly dated when they were college students, but she never had strong romantic feelings for him. Kanaka is now happily married to a man named Sekhar Mahalakshmi (played by Sriram, aslo known as Srikanth), who is openly affectionate with her, much to Ravi’s disdain.

Ravi keeps half-jokingly telling Kanaka that she is eventually going to marry Ravi, who constantly asks her out on dates that she firmly rejects. Ravi says insulting things about Kanaka’s marriage and about Sekhar. Ravi also makes other inappropriate, sexist comments to Kanaka while they’re on the job. It’s blatant sexual harassment.

And to make matters worse, Ravi isn’t very good at his job, since he does things such as show up late for courtroom appearances. An early scene in the movie shows that Ravi ruined a case by showing up too late with a crucial witness for a courtroom trial. The case was then dismissed by the trial judge.

All of this nonsense is shown early enough in the movie that viewers will immediately be wondering why Kanaka (who obviously dislikes Ravi) hasn’t fired Ravi already. Because “Ravanasura” is such a cesspool of idiocy, there is no explanation. The marriage of Kanaka and Sekhar is used for one of the movie’s many poorly conceived subplots and twists.

Ravi gives the impression that he’s a socially awkward jokester who can be very irresponsible, but he has some heartache in his life: His father lives in a hospital and appears to have dementia. The only thing that his father seems capable of saying is the name of a woman named Shanti. Ravi tells people that Shanti is the name of a nurse who used to take care of his father, and he grew very attached to this nurse.

Ravi has a goofy sidekick friend/attorney co-worker named Babji (played by Hyper Aadi), whose only purpose in the movie is going along with whatever Ravi says. One day, Ravi and Babji are at a library when they are approached by an attractive young woman named Harika Talwar (played by Megha Akash), who asks Ravi to be her father’s attorney. Harika’s father is a wealthy pharmaceutical mogul named Vijay Talwar (played by Sampath Raj), who has been accused of brutal murdering a man.

This murder, which took place in a restaurant, is shown as the opening scene of “Ravanasura.” The murder happened in front of several witnesses, who all identified Vijay as the killer. However, Vijay insists he’s been wrongfully accused and he wasn’t even near the restaurant when the murder happened. The problem for Vijay is that his alibi can’t be verified. Harika works as the head of research and development for her father’s company, which is called Syncox Pharma.

Kanaka doesn’t want her law firm to take the case, but Ravi uses blackmail to force the firm to take the case and to let Ravi be Vijay’s attorney. What Ravi does for the blackmail is to catch Kanaka off-guard by asking to take a selfie photo with her, and right when the picture is taken, he planted a romantic kiss on her cheek. Ravi tells Kanaka that he will show the photo to Kanaka’s husband Sekhar and tell him that Kanaka and Ravi are having an affair, unless she agrees to let Ravi be Vijay’s attorney. Yes, the movie really is this ridiculous.

The police officers who are the most involved in investigating the case are a deputy inspector general of police named Narasimha Murthy (played by Murli Sharma); an assistant commissioner of police named Hanumanth Rao (played by Jayaram), who takes the lead in the investigation and is very persistent; and police inspector named Ruhana (played by Pujita Ponnada), who Hunmanth’s subordinate and is often more perceptive than Hunmanth. And somewhere along the way, a home minister named Mudi Reddy (played by Rao Ramesh) is revealed to have a connection to this case. Other characters who have pivotal roles in the story include a makeup artist named Saketh (played by Sushanth); Saketh’s girlfriend Jaanu (played by Daksha Nagarkar); and a woman named Keerthana (played by Anu Emmanuel), who has a romantic interest in Ravi.

The last half of “Ravanasura” gets more and more tangled up in ludicrous revelations, until nothing in this movie is believable at all. It’s just a brainless story, bombastically told to make the action a not-very-convincing distraction from all the bad filmmaking on display. Most of the cast members over-act in the worst ways. Scenes that are supposed to be comedic look too forced and fake.

“Ravanasura” star Teja is one of the movie’s producers, so he’s partly to blame for how horrendous this movie is. However, “Ravanasura” director/co-writer Varma ultimately made a lot of the dreadful decisions that resulted in this movie being such a garbage dump. “Ravanasura” could have been a brain-teasing thriller. But instead, this noisy, overly long and aggressively foolish abomination is more likely to give viewers a headache.

Abhishek Pictures released “Ravanasura” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on April 7, 2023.