Agent sai srinivasa Athreya – movie review

Had it not been for Amazon Prime and Netflix, I would’nt have tried any of these movies and glad that they come with subtitles as well. Another telugu movie, quite a decent one as well, a detective thriller to top it all!! It has all the making for an amazing franchise, if the subsequent attempts have such a strong story line and thought process. The movie would make an amazing web series in itself too. The premise, the buildup, the crime and the deduction all have strong desi flavor and there is nothing phoren about any of it at all, except for the self-confessed love for Sherlock Holmes by the lead character and his fetish for crime movies from Hollywood. Right from initial name credits till the end, there are scenes running non-stop and despite that the movie doesn’t feel lengthy, at least for majority of the portions. Right at the beginning itself, the relation between “Agent” Sai and his sidekick lady is established - as No Romance. Initially I thought it was a spoof movie on detectives as the way the “Agent” goes about describing his day and work, it all felt like an comic spoof thriller on detectives like Pink Panther. But when the first flash of brilliance is revealed on a crime scene, where the “Agent” reveals, why it was not a suicide but a murder, it was a slight “ada” moment. When the incident gets elaborated with an Sherlockian attempt at revealing a bystander at a tea shop it was the next big “ada” moment. When it slowly unravels into a plot of dead bodies strewn all over the city with no one claiming them, it all starts as a simple premise. But the way it gets murkier and muddled with each reveal and the twist leading to interval block arrest of the “Agent” himself, you would all be hooked line and sinker into the story by this time. How come dead bodies, upon post mortem, where the cause of death is found to be natural for all the cases, appears to be strewn across the state, on inhospitable routes raises an awesome premise and is beautifully executed on screen as well with no confusion. The way the hunt takes shape is also quite logical and nothing extraordinary and no special gadgets are involved, with simple deduction being at the forefront. The villain is a beautiful mastermind as well, even though for 90% of the movie, the villain is left only for our imagination with only the moves in play, apparently the entire game has been planned already by the villain with moves and countermoves for every situation. That is the beauty of the setup with booby traps triggering false alarms leading to the arrest of the agent. All pre-thought and well-drawn early by a criminal mastermind. I was slightly disappointed with the reason for crime, but in this age where data is the new oil, it is too difficult to swallow even though it is quite real. With interluding comic moments and enough dosage of sentiment played into the scheme of things without diverting the flow of events, it is all one coherent and beautiful piece of narration from start to finish. I am not sure if there are plans to remake this movie into other languages, but would definitely make an interesting watch if the flow is not muddled.