‘Lenin’: Brutal, beautiful

There is something primeval and elemental about this slow-burn revenge saga. For no particular reason, it reminded me of the Nicolas Cage film ‘Mandy’. Perhaps it is the recurring image of fire and revenge, so intimately intertwined, the merger feels pre-destined.

Ignore the underwhelming reviews you have been reading in the Telugu media ever since the film released. They have not seen what we are meant to. ‘Lenin’ is a heartbreaking love story, at once tender and brutal. The layers of betrayal that govern the gore never crash-burn into the arena of a bore.

There is always something or the other happening in director Murali Kishor Abburu’s vibrant direction. He never allows the narration to sink into repose, prodding the plot into pulsating manoeuvres that we never see coming.

And yet this propulsive instinct is never exercised at the cost of the plot’s cogency. The murderous mix of mythology and mayhem and the generous nod to the spirit of backstabbing are uniquely blended into a broth of brutal splendour.

Am I over-praising the screenplay? Perhaps reading more into a routine revenge story than required? Not really! Here is a film that embraces the spirit of vendetta with a winking sprint. The core romance between Lenin (Akhil Akkineni) and Bharathi (the very lovely Bhagyashree Borse) deepens and defines the sanguinary spirit without making love a pretext for the violence.

The action is relentless, and so are the ‘Mahabharata’ references, including a card game where the modern-day Draupadi triumphs over Shakuni Mama. But we know there is trouble ahead for Bharathi, largely because the love of her life, Lenin, is no superhero. He is more a salvation than a saviour. More a victim than a perpetrator.

Here is where the execution of what could have been a routine revenge drama really got me. Akhil’s Lenin is no superman. In fact, I can’t recall a more vulnerable and trammeled hero in recent times. The repeated betrayals that the character faces makes him sink deeper and deeper into despair and distrust.

Akhil Akkineni is up to it. Each blow of fate on the solar plexus gets him to be… no, not stronger… just more determined to figure out where he stands in the cosmic scheme. Not a bystander for sure. Akhil brings substantial vulnerability and resilience to his character.

The supporting cast is also up to the task. I particularly liked Sivaji in a morally complex part. It is interesting to see how the supporting players sometimes take the narration to places where it may not have intended to go.

That said, ‘Lenin’ is not free of its freight of fallacies. There are the song breaks where Akhil and his co-star Bhagyashree show off their dancing skills when there is other more urgent business to attend to. Moreover the villains’ caucus is way too large, jostling and undistinguished. They are recognisable from afar by their tone of speech, their drinking and smoking. And when they all come together in one stuffy bar, heads roll in expected ways.

Beheading, a favourite pastime these days, is also a part of this film’s blood-soaked genes. But no one is playing football with severed heads. There is no attempt to render violence as a sport here. The heroics are so grounded, they feel authentic even when the narrative plunges into a pumped-up phantasmagoria.