The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Yet another cop, criminal flick

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Yet another cop, criminal flick

ACTION TIME: Jagapati Babu in ‘Homam’.

Film: Homam

Cast: Jagapati Babu, J.D. Chekravarthy

Direction: J.D. Chekravarthy

Homam is a simple story of some good men and the bad or in other words a cop and a criminal who are separated by uniform.

Jagapati Babu obviously is the good person who has a dark past.

His dream is to become a cop but since his father has a criminal background he is not qualified to become one.

Undercover cop

However, Pradeep Rawat, trains him to become an undercover cop and Jagapati works in gangster Mahesh Manjrekar’s group and keeps tipping off the police.

J.D. Chekravarthy is also a police cadet recruited as a mole by Mahesh Manjrekar to infiltrate the police department.

The rest of the story is how Jagapati and Chekri try to root out the other before their true identities can be revealed.

Hollywood ‘inspiration’

This film is clearly inspired by ‘The Departed’ and the director tossed the drama with unnecessary romance and comedy which only mars and dilutes the content.

Jagapati Babu is seen in a serious role and his love interest Mamta plays a doctor.

The music, the romantic interlude, the love track between Chekravarthy and Madhurima or Jagapati and Mamta doesn’t gel with the story.

Mahesh Manjrekar, Pradeep Rawat, Prabhakar are all peripheral characters who aid in moving the story along and the film has few absorbing moments like Prabhakar’s and Pradeep Rawat’s death.

Those who have watched ‘The Departed’ or for that matter ‘Infernal Affairs’ will seldom have an emotionally numbing or thrilling experience and for the first timers too there is hardly any mounting tension.

Uninspiring dialogues

Dialogues are uninspiring and one doesn’t empathise or feel the highs and lows of the protagonists’ mission.

Jagapati Babu attempts to mix vulnerability to his tough role.

Chekri fails to bring the negative expressions and it appears as if two heroes are at loggerheads for no fault of theirs.

Prabhakar chips in convincing performance.

The bloodshed, violence fits in well with the mood, place and people around. Technically the film makes an impact.

Y. SUNITA CHOWDHARY

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