A masala entertainer, but flavour-less

A young man is yanked out of a train in the middle of nowhere. This seemingly benign lungi-clad man fights a truckload of goons singlehandedly and flies off with the chopper of the gang leader after pulling off an atrocious stunt.

Cut. The same lungi-clad man now breaks into a dance sequence in an equally atrocious setting, with tribesmen and jeans-clad women pulling off a flash mob. Well, he is not just another taporianna from Andhra. He is the District Collector coming to his work station to take charge. In between the fight and the dance sequence, his introduction is cleverly dropped — he is the IPS-turned-IAS officer, who has an anger issue.

Cut. As the dancing superstar makes it to his home to be welcomed by his parents and siblings, his mother talks about his marriage. Hero Ram Nandan (Ram Charan) refuses to talk about it, and out comes the romantic track, his transformation from the angry young college-goer to becoming the angry-still-young District Collector.

In case viewers have a problem comprehending whether the track is running in real time or as flashback, a drinking buddy prompts him, ‘Flashback main jana hai kya?’ How thoughtful!

One gets the essence! So when Ram Nandan takes charge and on the first day transfers corrupt officials, who are literally airlifted by some invisible force from his office and dumped at forsaken places, stop looking for logic. Neither in the actions of the hot-headed hero, nor his targets: the caricaturist politicians.

Let the unscrupulous CM Sathyamurthy (Srikanth), who killed Ram Nandan’s biological father to be the CM, have a change of heart in his last days and nominate Nandan as his successor.

Let Ram Nandan, who gets suspended for slapping Sathyamurthy’s son and minister Bobbili Mopidevi (SJ Suryah) on stage but soon comes back as the State Electoral Officer, do what he needs to do, even if his methods are highly unconventional.

Let his biological mother, who is mentally unstable, have perfectly manicured nails which stand out against her cropped hair and deranged face. Or, let his love interest Deepika (Kiara Advani), who is a doctor, count votes inside a polling station while Ram Nandan fights the goons outside.

Anyways, a few songs later, I am blinded to notice such nitty-gritty. That’s thanks to the CGI effects, which, like all other departments of the film, are over the top.

If Shankar wanted to highlightthe frustrations of the common man and the injustice done by the system, the message gets lost in Ram Charan’s swag and the burst of colours in the frames.

To give writer-director S Shankar his due, ‘Game Changer’ does not pretend to be an intellectual political thriller. Taking politics as its core and adding Ram Charan’s charisma to the plot, Shankar aimed to deliver a masala entertainer and that’s precisely what it is.

Only if his ingredients were not so jarring and blended with one another instead of carrying standalone flavours, it could have been, at least, palatable.