Pushpa: The Rise - Part 1 Movie Review: Pushpa Is Flowering Stage Of Fire Boosted By Allu Arjun’s Mass And Fahadh Faasil's Swag

Director Sukumar is known for his complex, multi-layered storytelling but with Pushpa he comes out of his zone to join the mass party. His last directorial with Ram Charan Rangasthalam (2018) was a perfect mixture of action and drama. A film that has been celebrated by the masses and enjoyed by Classes, which is a very thing. Pushpa has too much mass in it and with Allu Arjun's stylish image; it becomes too hard for the director to break those walls. However, the mass appeal and dramatic action Pushpa has to offer is surely crowd-pleasing. As we know, the tale will be continued in the second part, Pushpa: The Rise - Part 1 gives quite a satisfying start to it. Sadly, it's too lengthy. Not a flower, but a Fire, that's what it is and people who are going to watch it must not forget that. Underestimating this film just because it does not offer anything beyond typical South Masala Entertainer, may work on the positive side.Pushpa is based on the Red sanders smuggling in the Seshachalam Hills of the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. Pushpa Raj, a truck driver, joins the syndicate as a small-time smuggler and later rises to the top chair. He challenges several biggies in this process and successfully smashes them all. Few of them even join his team to gain more profit. Everything goes in his favor until one day, when New IPS officer Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat (Fahadh Faasil) comes to challenge his rules. It's not the end. It's just the beginning of the rise of Pushpa, and the second part will see the interesting face-off between Pushpa and Bhanwar Singh. The screenplay is slow in the first half because it takes too much time just to introduce the characters and the setup. The second half has nothing new to offer, it's just a fairly decent affair with all those typical smuggling-crime-dramas cliches. However, it leaves you wanting for more because it does not have a fulfilling end. It leaves you excited for the second part because finally you see someone as strong as Pushpa to challenge him.Pushpa is all about Allu Arjun's style and mass. Not a single moment when he drops his charisma a bit, that continuous rage and anger in him keeps his character damn heroic. Shreyas Talpade'a voice suits the fearless nature of Pushpa and his grip over Marathi accent helps to create that local connect. Even Hindi fans of Allu Arjun are going to scream out> and whistle loudly for Talpade's dialogue delivery. Rashmika Mandanna gets into a deglamorized zone (which is commendable) as she plays Srivalli, a love interest of Pushpa, but don't know why she still looks glamorous. Maybe, that has something to do with her beautiful face. Fahadh Faasil enters the party very late but his dialogue delivery and arrogant swag leaves a strong impact. The supporting cast is strictly average because none of them has got to do anything different. It's just the same old school full of naughty kids with the same school-time tricks. Sukumar could have used them in a better way, however, he relies on the same old formulas he had left behind years ago with Arya. Even with Allu-Rashmika's romantic affair, he didn't try to do anything different.Pushpa has its highs and lows and both are in proper balance. The action is one of the major highlights of the film, followed by dialogues and music. Devi Sri Prasad has gifted a good massy album to Pushpa and every song works. Samantha Ruth Prabhu's hotness steals the credit of Oo Bolega, while Rashmika grabs attention in Sami Sami. Allu is part of every song anyhow so it just can't be one song to name. The cinematography of Miroslaw Brozek is strictly okay, but otherwise great during action sequences.Pushpa needed a better screenplay than the writing because we have seen similar stories being told in different styles. Take KGF for instance. Director Sukumar shows a drop in his own standard from Rangasthalam, which was a complete mass film and so is comparable. Otherwise, nobody is expecting a smart and complex neo-noir like Nenokkadine from Pushpa. Nevertheless, Sukumar manages to keep the stylish swag of Allu Arjun intact with this film and the additional boost of Fahadh Faasil saves it from drowning. Overall, Pushpa is a blooming massy flick which has Fire loaded in it- for the sequel of course.. Like he quotes several times, "Jhukega Nahi". And the best one, "Pushpa, not a Flower but a Fire".