‘Game Changer’ Review: S. Shankar’s First Telugu-Language Film Leans on Incoherent Spectacle

Some things are a given in a S. Shankar film. First, there will be a social message, usually against corruption. His heroes are often murderous vigilantes doling out death sentences to greedy politicians, officials and businessmen. Second, there will be ostentatious musical set pieces — this is the director who has previously taken us to Macchu Picchu, the Great Wall of China and the Leaning Tower of Pisa via songs.

And third, there will be spectacle. The filmmaker has never met a scenario that he could not make bigger and more colorful. “I’m unpredictable,” says Ram Nandan (Ram Charan), the hero of Game Changer, Shankar’s latest film and his first Telugu-language one. But Shankar, who has been making movies for 32 years — along with Mani Rathnam, he’s one of the original pan-India directors — is not.

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With Game Changer (which this critic saw dubbed in in Hindi), Shankar’s signature maximalist storytelling instincts have gone into overdrive. Every beat is heightened. Every expression is exaggerated. Every emotion is drilled into our brains. For two hours and 45 minutes, this film veers between ridiculous and even more ridiculous.

But while this delirious, over-the-top vibe is part of the pleasure of a Shankar film, it only works as long as it’s tethered to coherent narrative. Game Changer, which is based on a story by Karthik Subbaraj, has some semblance of one. However, the storytelling only kicks in about 15 minutes before the intermission, and then quickly swerves into outlandish territory and stays there.

Case in point: This film has not one but two characters who can only look sideways. One was born that way — his name is Side Satyam (Sunil), and this is supposed to be fodder for comedy. The other has her neck turned in one direction because she’s witnessed such a horrific tragedy that she lost her mental balance and her ability to move her face to the front. This is supposed to be fodder for high emotion, but honestly, it comes off as unintentional comedy.

Kiara Advani plays the love interest Deepika, who meets Ram when they are students in college. Her character falls into the “even more ridiculous” category. When Ram gets suspended from school, Deepika consoles him by saying that now he has time to plan their marriage. In another scene, when Ram suggests they get naughty, she asks with a straight face if they’re going against their culture and crossing any lines.

But my favorite is when she gives Ram the memorable advice to channel his anger by becoming an Indian Administrative Service officer. As though cracking one of the most competitive exams in India (with a success rate of between 0.1 and 0.3 percent) and becoming an officer works as some sort of therapy.

Ram takes her suggestion seriously, joining the Indian Police Service and then becoming an IAS officer overseeing an election rampant with corruption, violence and vote tampering. It’s sad to see a fine actor like Advani reduced to a pretty prop, though she does get to wear a sparkly pink outfit that would make Barbie envious and a few very nice salwar suits.

The burden of the film falls on the shoulders of Charan, who plays Ram’s father, Appanna, as well as Ram. Both are the epitome of righteousness and masculinity; there’s even a background song with lyrics to the effect of “You are God.” Ram spends a lot of his time getting in and out of helicopters, and I will say that this is perhaps the best use of these vehicles since Shah Rukh Khan stepped out of one in Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham. We see Ram as a village leader, a college hooligan who fights against injustice, an upright cop and an even more upstanding IAS officer.

We also watch him dance vigorously in several musical numbers which are rumored to have cost some 75 crores (about 8.7 million U.S. dollars) to create. These sequences are bright and colorful, but the visualization, once a Shankar USP, is largely forgettable. While Charan commits to the many versions of his two characters, his performance gets lost in the sound and fury.

The one star who seems to be having fun is S.J. Suryah as a big bad politician named Mopidevi. A strong actor, he seems to have decided, Why hold back? He goes full tilt unhinged, finding the delicious vein of comedy amid all the seriousness and social messaging.

Shankar aids Suryah’s histrionics by refusing to keep the camera still for even a nanosecond. In some of the more dramatic sequences, it moves in circles with such ferocity that it will make you dizzy. Cinematographer S. Thirunavukkarasu even gives us a few Ram Gopal Varma-style angles, with one shot coming from inside a dustbin. The soundtrack, by Thaman S, could have been a saving grace, but it’s blasted with such enthusiasm that it becomes exhausting.

Game Changer is many things — but it’s not a game changer.