A rich tycoon (Sudeep) bumps off a simple young lad (Nani) over a woman (Samantha), only to have the boy’s soul take birth in a housefly and return for revenge.
With the housefly fly away all the rules of Tollywood’s filmmaking. Till a week ago, producers talked about how big budgets need big stars, item numbers, punch dialogues… Rajamouli turns those assumptions on their heads as he makes a clean and crystal clear movie packed with entertainment, humour and some stunning graphics with special effects. He proves that you don’t need a star or a star son to make it big. Almost like a challenge, he casts a fly as the hero, makes him romance the girl, fight the baddies and come out triumphantly, all this complete with a droning buzz!
There is creativity oozing in every scene. Why for that matter, beginning the movie with voiceover of a girl asking her dad to narrate her a brand new bedtime story and the father launching off on the tale of a conqueror fly, itself sums up Rajamouli’s talent. What is extraordinary is the way he builds up the character of the fly, giving it a heart and character, and he makes us sympathise and empathise with it throughout. If the ‘eega’ wins you over hands down, it is because of the cutting edge SFX and the fine work by cinematographer Senthil Kumar. The work here is vastly different from the regular special effects in an alien movie or a space movie. The manner in which the fly emotes to you touches a chord. The fly has expressions, emotions, an ego and even a wink!
The movie is built in episodic layers and each one giving one angle to the story. The first ten minutes are about Sudeep’s machinations. The next about Nani’s love for Bindu, Sudeep seeking out her and so on so forth. However, each scene is crafted with perfection to optimise the screen time it gets. The other highlight is Sudeep’s role. He looks menacing but spends all his time battling the irritating fly which keeps him on his toes all day long – and night too. The fly decides the moment it is born that it will settle scores with the tycoon and make him devoid of all his belongings. He wreaks havoc in Sudeep’s life by doing simple things as making him turn into a zombie due to sleep deprivation by getting into ears, nose, mouth everywhere. As a result, he messes up all his contracts and turns into a fly phobic man.
The twist comes when the fly communicates to Bindu that he is none other then her Nani and how Bindu sides up with him to bump off the evil Sudeep who lusts after her and nipped their love in the bud. Just when you think he is finished, Sudeep rises like a phoenix to fix both Bindu and the fly. What happens next forms the climax.
Samantha looks like just the kind of ‘touch me not’ girl any man wants to get. Her kurtis are a real fashions statement. Nani looks sweet as an ever hopeful unrequited lover. But Sudeep is the real show stealer. He looks the rich kid in every angle and as someone who cannot be easily taken for granted. He looks astounding in the climax scene where he stops laughing at the Bindu-fly’s love story and again continues it after a bit. Almost like a little freebie with a shopping bag, Rajamouli attaches a hilarious bit with a thief (Tagubothu Ramesh) in the end.
On the technical side, MM Kreem’s numbers are as good as the highly effective background score. The Nene Nani Ne and Eega Eega songs truly rock. While one is a melody – the Arey Arey Arey song is haunting – the other is full of josh. Senthil’s camerawork, angles etc show us the world from the fly’s perspective. The manner in which the graphics work as the fly sneaks its way into Sudeep enclosed AC car through the engine vents through the fuel tank is outstanding. You also get to see how difficult it is for the fly to survive in the current world.
Rajamouli’s past birth connection seems to be his lucky mascot and it works here too. The same death-birth sentiment was in Yamadonga, Magadheera and now in Eega. He built up the tempo and hype from the day he announced the movie. And nowhere does he disappoint. He makes a movie that Tollywood is proud of. Just go for it – poore parivar ke saath (with full family).
Telugu, Action, Drama, Color