Okay. My sides hurt. No, seriously, I think I pulled an oblique muscle from laughing so hard. It's almost midnight, my brain is buzzing, and I just finished *Sarileru Neekevaru* on Amazon Prime Video and I feel like I just mainlined a can of Red Bull mixed with pure, uncut joy. My couch is officially a disaster zone, there's popcorn everywhere, and my cat is giving me the side-eye because I kept jumping up and down during the action scenes.
That train scene. THAT. TRAIN. SCENE. Right at the beginning. It just throws you in. No warning. And there's Ajay, just looking completely bored while a bunch of terrorists try to do... whatever it is they think they're doing. He's not even trying. It's like he's swatting away flies. And then he just… tosses a guy out the window. With this look on his face like he's wondering what's for dinner. I literally leaned forward so fast I almost knocked my laptop off the coffee table. That's the moment I knew. This wasn't going to be a movie. This was going to be an EVENT. An event I was experiencing in my pajamas, with the freedom to pause and go get more ice cream, which I did. Twice. Thank you, Prime Video, for your infinite buffer.
Honestly, the whole movie is just built on that energy. It's two and a half hours of Mahesh Babu just being… Mahesh Babu. The man has so much charisma it should be illegal. He can deliver a cheesy one-liner about duty and honor and make it sound like the coolest thing ever uttered. Then he can turn around and do a comedy bit with his sidekicks and have me wheezing. There was this one scene, I think it was with Brahmanandam, where they're trying to sneak into the house, and the dialogue is so fast and the physical comedy is so perfectly timed, I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. I was slapping my knee, a real, actual knee-slap, like I'm my grandpa watching a classic comedy. My cat, Loki, just stared at me like I'd lost my mind. Maybe I have.
Speaking of my grandpa… he wasn't in the army or anything, but he had this way about him. Super disciplined. His shirts were always perfectly ironed, his shoes were always shining, and he walked with his back so straight you could use him as a ruler. Watching Mahesh Babu in that army uniform, all crisp and sharp, it reminded me of that. The way he stands, the way he talks. There's this authority that doesn't need to be shouted. It's just… there. I remember once, I must have been like, ten, I tried to sneak a cookie before dinner and he just gave me this look. No words. Just this look. I put the cookie back so fast… never mind. This isn't about my grandpa. This is about a movie where the hero fights an entire army with a smile.
But okay, let's be real for a second. Was the plot… a thing? I mean, yes, there was a plot. Something about a family, a corrupt politician, a hidden identity. Standard stuff. And the romance! Rashmika Mandanna is adorable, I loved her, but their whole meet-cute and falling-in-love montage… I thought I loved it in the moment! The songs were catchy, the locations were pretty. But now that I'm typing this, my brain is replaying it and… was it actually kind of dumb? Did it feel completely disconnected from the rest of the high-stakes action? It's like the movie slammed on the brakes for a 20-minute vacation rom-com before remembering it had a villain to fight. I don't know. I'm conflicted. My heart says "Yay, love!" but my brain is saying "That was just filler."
And the villain. Oh, the poor villain. He's trying so hard to be this menacing, evil force, and he's twirling his mustache (metaphorically, mostly) and making these big threats, but you just know he's going to get folded into a pretzel by Ajay in the end. It's not about *if* he'll lose, it's about *how entertaining* his losing will be. And it was VERY entertaining. The climax is this giant, ridiculous, over-the-top spectacle that makes no logical sense but is the most satisfying thing I've seen all week. The sound of my TV speakers was straining to keep up with all the explosions and punch sounds. It's not the same as a theater, I guess, but on my couch? I felt every single boom. Or maybe that was just my heart pounding.
This movie is just so… confident. It knows what it is. It's a star vehicle. It's a masala entertainer. It's not trying to win an Oscar for Best Screenplay. It's trying to make you cheer and laugh and have a great time, and it succeeds. I complained about the romance, but honestly, I'd sit through another hour of it just to get to that final confrontation. The way Mahesh Babu switches from the goofy, fun-loving guy to this cold, efficient soldier in a split second… chills. Absolute chills. I found myself mimicking his little hand gestures, his walk. I am a 21-year-old man, and I was practicing my "cool army guy walk" in my living room at 11:47 PM. Don't judge.
I think the best part of watching this at home, on Prime, was the control. I could rewind that train intro three times. I could pause to go to the bathroom without missing anything crucial. I could turn on the subtitles for that one line I couldn't understand over the sound of my own laughter. It's a different kind of experience. Less communal, maybe, but more personal. It felt like the movie was made just for me, in my little bubble, on my comfy couch. And isn't that what streaming is all about?
Okay, my thoughts are starting to scramble. It's late. I need to go rewatch that train fight one more time.
8.5/10 - decent
-ishaan