On this edition of Indian Cinema Roundup, a pair of action-packed Telugu-language films featuring major stars. Both films feature visionary leaders striving toward justice with a mix of political action and action as politics, and lean into the trope of flashbacking at the midpoint to provide additional historical reference to contextualize and motivate the contemporary story.
Both films are tremendously enjoyable, and while the box office has clearly favored the (slightly) more grounded vigilante epic Daaku Maharaaj, I preferred the clever maneuvering and one-upmanship central to the deliriously bonkers Game Changer.
Either way, your ears will be happy with the energetic, hard-driving, dance-infused music of composer Thaman S.
GAME CHANGER, dir. S. Shankar
Ram Charan, best known as one of the co-leads of the massive worldwide his RRR, stars in S. Shankar’s (Enthiran) Telugu language directorial debut, the politically charged Game Changer.
Hotheaded Ram Nandan (Charan) is a firebrand led by a sense of righteous fury, trying to look out for the community by punishing wrongdoers. Inspired by his love for the beautiful Deepika (Kiara Advani), who shuns his violent methods and ask-questions-later approach, he channels his anger into public service by becoming a district collector – a position with a lot of practical power to effect change, which he wields effectively as a sort of supercop in many humorous and over-the-top action-packed sequences.
Ram’s bureaucratic ascent puts him at odds with the corrupt local government led by the Bobbili clan, especially the scheming Bobbili Mopidevi (S. J. Surya), the son of the Chief Minister who seeks to set himself up as the next CM.
While this plot might not seem particularly exciting, it’s executed in such a deliriously entertaining and indulgently crowd-pleasing fashion, packed with devilishly sly political maneuverings, absurd humor, high melodrama, and of course tons of show-stopping musical interludes which are brilliantly colorful and brimming with energy.
In a gag that seems pulled from the Z-A-Z style of Airplane!, Ram’s right-hand man is a guy who always walks and stands sideways, never looking directly at those to whom he’s speaking – because, he explains, he came out of the womb sideways. “Jokes” like this are all the more wild for appearing infrequently in a semi-serious political story, creating a mishmash of tones and styles which I find to be charmingly Indian-Asian, but I know some viewers could find disorienting.
In a trope that’s somewhat common to many Indian blockbusters, the film is halved by an intermission which then changes perspective to tell another story which gives context to the main conflict. We roll back a few decades and learn the untold story of the origins of the Bobbili clan’s political party and rise to power – with Charan playing a dual role of Ram’s father, a political influencer whose righteousness and hunger for justice we can see echoed in his son.
Personally I loved this and embraced the goofiness along the the excellence. It’s only January and there will undoubtedly be better movies than this in 2025, but I can’t imagine what could top this as a straight-up banger.
DAAKU MAHARAAJ, dir. Bobby Kolli
While I personally loved Game Changer, it underperformed at home and audiences seem to be more engaged with the competition, Dakku Maharaaj, starring Nandamuri Balakrishna, aka NBK. This seemed to be reflected in my own screenings, where Game Changer had a sparse turnout and Dakku Maharaaj was greeted by a loud and boisterous crowd who cheered and whooped in key scenes and in some of the more suggestive dance moves.
Nanaji (NBK) takes on a job as the driver for a wealthy estate, where the family and their fearless patriarch are dealing with fallout from opposing the powerful gangsters who are trying to use the land for illegal activities including drug production.
The driver’s interests and reasons for infiltrating the family extend far beyond employment though, and he has his own reasons for wanting to not only help the family, but protect their precocious young granddaughter. NBK has a sweet chemistry with the young girl who is his charge, creating a central beating heart that powers and informs the story. It soon become clear that Nanaji is no mere chauffeur, but an utterly badass guardian angel who fights back against the baddies guerrilla style – not only that, he’s backed by an loyal army of people who love him – a king with no kingdom – the “Daaku Maharaaj”.
Like Game Changer, the film follows the common Telugu trope of changing gears in the second half to tell the origin story behind the Daaku Maharaaj and his followers; then tying it forward to the contemporary storyline with lots lots of twists and angles in both timelines. It’s a solid grounding, telling how a concerned civil engineer took on the plight of a poor remote village without access to water, essentially enslaved to a mining operation, and became their champion.
While not as deliriously entertaining as Game Changer – which is in my mind the superior film of this pairing – I also found a lot to love with Daaku Maharaaj, which is kind of like an Indian version of Man on Fire, but you find out halfway through that the Denzel’s bodyguard character was secretly Malcolm X leading an underground militant group.
