Agent Movie Review: A spy film that puts the fire in misfire – cinemaexpress

Ramakrishna alias Rikki (Akhil Akkineni), much like Karthi in last years Sardar has zero qualms about his family treating him like a slacker up to no good. He never provides an explanation, content with his family living in oblivion about his true aspirations. With a cheeky grin slapped across his face, he roams around town gathering intel on suspicious people in the hopes of being noticed by the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), where he aspires to work someday. He even audaciously attends government job exams writing on the margins of his OMR sheets that he wants a job at the RAW, while declaring as a matter of fact that he is not interested in a desk job. After getting rejected thrice, he takes matters into his own hands to get his dream job one more time. While Telugu cinema is always game for fusing real-life details of a star into the fictitious character he is essaying, the unintentional parallels displayed in Akhil seeking that coveted break in the industry after a string of unsuccessful films, against Rikkis sincere but less-than-legal attempts to get into this countrys elite intelligence force is not lost on me.

It is a little hard to explain the rest of Agents plot coherently, considering it flits from one point to another like a tiresome, fidgety teenager.

Cast - Akhil Akkineni, Mammootty, Dino Morea, Sakshi Vaidya

Director - Surender Reddy

There is a mismatch so severe in the films tone, it feels like the body of a run-of-the-mill Hollywood spy actioner is possessed with the spirit of a politically incorrect Telugu masala film, the kind Surender Reddy and his writer Vakkantham Vamsi thrive in. Look at Rikkis relationship with Vidya (Sakshi Vaidya), for instance. There is a love at first sight on part of the former, followed by what sounds like a situationship in theory, only to have that inconsequential subplot (which is only rivaled by three out-of-place romantic singles) get hijacked by our hero winning the heroines heart by threatening her harasser.

Much like John Abrahams Jim in Pathaan, you get a capitalist villain with a grudge in Agent (Dino Morea), an antagonist who considers terrorism based on religious fundamentalism as passe. Ideologues are mere pawns for The God (Dino Morea) and The Syndicate, a secret, Illuminati-like organisation who have their hands in everything from governance to media and beyond. Contrast this with the way Syndicate is used in Pushpa: The Rise. Any newfangled concept in a film, irrespective of its specific connotations, is only as effective as the rest of its story. The writing of Agent, especially in its second half focuses on the unholy trinity of two men who are titled The God and The Devil, alongside Rikki who shuttles from one entity to another. It is interesting to note that the films stern do-gooder is called The Devil, while the ex-agent turned rogue syndicate head is The God. There is also some interesting writing in the backstory of Rikki and The Devil (Mammootty) and how it is pitted against the backstory of The Devil and Mahadev. While there is some noteworthy commentary on the difference between a good student/agent vs a bad one, all these interpersonal dynamics never weave their way into the story as they prominently should. We instead get a film with buzzwords like floating banks and sleeper cells, like empty shells on a scorched battlefield. Cinematographer Rasool Ellore lights the film with style and aplomb, trying to make up for the films lacklustre story with the brightest explosions. Just as the film manages to end on a sincere note on how heroes never die, on par with the films last act, we are also handed a post-credits sequence where the makers practically mock the films viewer by going, You really thought we would kill the hero, did you? You fool.

Akhil hams his way through Agent, with the audience never quite being able to believe the elevations he receives throughout the film. Mammootty, while handsome and formidable, is on the receiving end of a pithy, place card role. The film continues its streak of jarring, half-hearted executions with the way it recreates New Delhis RAW office in Hyderabads Raidurgam, which would have at least worked if they did not display the birds eye B-roll of the same Raidurgam area when they wanted to establish the story in Hyderabad.

There is a throwaway line of logic and magic somewhere in Agent, and the film falls short on both counts, leaving its viewer with a tedious, overwhelmingly unmemorable experience.

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Agent Movie Review: A spy film that puts the fire in misfire - cinemaexpress