Cast: Kalyan Ram, Aditi Arya, Jagapathi Babu, Posani, Vennela Kishore & Ali
Banner: NTR Arts
Music: Anup Rubens
Editor: Junaid
Cinematography: Mukesh G
Producer: Kalyan Ram
Writer-Director: Puri Jagannadh
Tagline: JournalISM + Julian AssangISM + CommercialISM with PURI Masala (& added flavors)
Plot:
Kalyan Ram (Kalyan Ram) claims to be a street fighter in an island nation, the abode of Bank of Paradise owned by international mafia don Javed Ibrahim. He woos Alia Khan, the only daughter of Javed Bhai. Once Alia falls in love with Kalyan Ram, a course of events reveal the true of identity of Kalyan Ram alias Satya Marthand and his ‘Grand Leakage’ organization that forms a potential threat to Javed Ibrahim! What is the mission of Satya Marthand’s Grand Leakage and did he succeed? What happened to Alia then? Well that’s for us to find out!
Performances:
You will see Puri’s Kalyan Ram in the film. From his macho looks to temperament, Kalyan Ram has unleashed a lesser known actor in him. Keeping aside dances and routine fights, Kalyan Ram steals the show with his attitude, dialogues and intensity. He proves no less to Jr NTR in the climax episode – feast for fans.
Aditi Arya: This ambitious model turned actress & Femina Miss India World (2015) pageant winner tried her level best to mouth her dialogues and put a suitable expression but she is yet to make the cut as an actress.
Jagapathi Babu: He was suave and handsome with his voguish outfits and smoking ‘kareem beedi’ but the villain in him (Mr. Javed Ibrahim) belongs to the bygone generation. On a frank note, he wasn’t convincing as an international don (coincidentally a Muslim and on top of it, resembling Dawood Ibrahim). Had his character been stuffed with an ounce of ‘villainISM’, the film would’ve been on a different horizon altogether.
Ali and Vennela Kishore play their part and leave. Posani was a sheer entertainer. Glad to see senior actors like Gollapudi Maruti Rao & Pavala Syamala back on the silver screen once again. While actors like JP were under-utilized, the rest of the cast just fill the frame.
Analysis:
A thin storyline on ‘journalism’ laced up with Julian Assange’s ‘Wiki Leaks’ ideology bent conveniently to the level of a Telugu commercial film topped up with Puri mark masala. Basically belonging to the school where story remains the same but treatment varies, Puri chose elements like ‘journalism’ and wiki leaks. Well then he doesn’t care to dig deep into the topic but prefers to just touch and go. On top of it, he blends aspects like journalism, patriotism, social responsibility, black money and declares a cyber war on the current system targeting black money holders. Solving issues with hacking, a single code and of course not to be forgotten high voltage dialogues towards the climax.
However in the due course, the heroine is naturally neglected. Since we are done with the social message part, we need to circle back and get her! And guess what… Happy endings!
Puri’s style of narration did not change much except for the climax format (inspired from Temper and several other old Telugu movies). Unlike Temper, this movie has no proper highs and lows or ‘Goosebumps moments’ (excluding the climax episode). Of course the protagonist goal is clear but it's really unfortunate to see that this script has such a dumb villain. Except for the hatke dialogues, ISM has nothing special that gives you a kick.
Music:
Anup Rubens catered to the needs of his director with the music and back ground score.
Others:
Nothing special to mention
Verdict:
ISM is a Puri mark commercial film upon ‘journalism’ inspired from Julian Assange and Wiki leaks. Even if you are not a diehard fan of movies/Puri movies/Kalyan Ram movies/any of those, you can watch this film once for Kalyan Ram, his attitude, dialogues and the climax.