People need you, tells a commoner to Pawan Kalyan. That is a strong political message the actor throws in and on the personal front, the comeback vehicle as sported has all the trappings of a mass entertainer and paisa vasool.
As if reserving his best in the convincing act of a lawyer, Satya Dev (Kalyan) brings to light the same queries posed in the original Pink. Why should boys have all the fun? Do the girls not have the same right in the flesh of their youth to enjoy that phase as if there is no tomorrow.
Everything is fine but the girls will do well to remember that they are entitled to their unending fun life if they are escorted. Is it not inviting or courting trouble sharing the bed while drowning a peg in the wee hours in a resort?
Men have been spared the mother of humiliation when it comes to rape. The pains and sufferings of a woman have been told umpteen times on the big screen. None reflected more than the dialogue in the 80s hit Vidhi, where the defence lawwer Jaishankar says that the Almighty had to be blamed for the women's curse on men.
A movie tailored to project Pawan Kalyan as the messiah is all there to see. To the credit of the actor, he has basked in the character of Satya Dev, to the extent of outscoring the opponent Prakash Raj in the court scenes. The dialogues go a long way to provide a semblance of respect to the women characters.
Unlike the act of Amitabh Bachchan, who sticks to his agenda to question the rights of a man to outrage the modesty of an unwilling woman, Pawan Kalyan gets an extended screen space including a flurry of fights to showcase the staying powers in him and not seen as the brother of whom-you-know.
There is merit, saleability and conviction when he thunders the lines that a No has to be construed as a No from a woman even if she happens to be from the oldest profession. The punch lines go well with the thunder of the audience, who seem to love every second of the duel in the long stretched court room actions.
Reprising Taapsee Pannu's character, Nivetha Thomas gets the plum role and the confident ways of her body language stand pronounced till the end. She admits that as a teenager, she saw within her rights to have consensual sex with her partner. Vamsi Krishna, as the wrongdoer, is more than adequate and makes capital use of the space he gets by right in the engaging court room battle.
The director wastes no time in coming to the vexatious issue after a pleasant opening number where the girls have a breezy time. Composer S Thaman plays his cards effectively, with minimal use of instruments in the background score. Any loudness would have taken the sheen out of a plot that is still fresh in the audience memory.
Much like the original, there is no solution offered by the director for the girls who long to get on even keel with their counterparts. One hopes that a maker dares to bring to light the plus and minus aspects. After all, it pays to be intelligent for anyone to wriggle out of a tight situation and plan the moves once the order is restored.