Review: Vikram K Kumar’s last film Gang Leader might not have been everything one could’ve hoped for, but at least it was fun. With Thank You the director recycles the ‘ghosts of the Christmas past’ template minus the Christmas but lots of snow. So what you get is a whole lot of cliché mixed with some moments that are meant to be emotional and thought-provoking.
Abhiram aka Abhi (Naga Chaitanya), the founder of a medical app, is a nightmare to work with. As he upgrades his wardrobe from simple tee-shirts to cool sweatshirts and later on, swanky suits, he downgrades his attitude. The young boy who has never been out of Andhra and was once excited to see snow and rangula ratnam (carousel) is now an egoistic man who believes he’s the sole reason for his success. His girlfriend Priya (Raashi Khanna) is pregnant but has had enough of his attitude. An unfortunate incident pushes her to take it a step further and leave him for good. Abhi is forced to now look back on his life, see where he went wrong and maybe even learn some humility to acknowledge the ones who helped him along the way.
Thank You takes us through Abhi’s life as a school-going kid from Narayanapuram who is naïve, falls in love with the zamindar’s daughter Parvati (Malvika Nair) and dreams of securing a government job and playing hockey for the national team. It also takes us to an angry college-going young man in Vizag, who’s too busy beating up his rival Sarva (Sai Sushant Reddy) or being chummy with his rakhi-sister Chinnu (Avika Gor) to predict the consequences of it all. While Abhi’s back story, especially the Vizag portions, are set-up as some big ol’ mystery, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before. In fact, if you’ve seen films like Naa Autograph, Premam, even Maharshi, you’re kind of set.
Naga Chaitanya doesn’t deliver a flawless performance as Abhi, he even hammy in some of the emotional scenes. We know he can do better after his performance in Love Story. In fact, he’s unintentionally funny in a key scene where you wonder if he’s having a panic attack or a cardiac arrest. He breezes through the scenes where he’s meant to look brooding; but it’s not enough to keep you emotionally invested in a film that hinges a lot on his performance. Raashi Khanna finds herself stuck, yet again after World Famous Lover, in the role of the weepy girlfriend who will leave a man-child so he sees the error of his ways. She and Avika Gor do the best with what they’re offered while Malvika and Sushanth shine. Prakash Raj and Easwari Rao are wasted.
But the true hero of this film is PC Sreeram’s cinematography. You can’t help but notice how beautifully he plays along with the light, colours, shadows and textures – wishing his work was not marred by shoddy VFX in some scenes. Thaman S also complements the film well with his BGM, but only two songs from the OST stand out.
Thank You doesn’t offer anything fresh in terms of the story or the performances. Watch this one if you don’t mind watching the same old tale of redemption.
