Kalyan Ram's Amigos generated immense interest among movie lovers with the peculiar title. The Spanish title connected chords with the viewers and the teaser and trailer talking about doppelgangers, unheard in the film industry captured the imagination of all. The film directed by Rajendra Reddy is releasing today on 10 February 2023 across the world. Expectations are high as Kalyan Ram is coming after surprising and scoring a hit with his previous outing Bimbisara. The film's OTT rights have been bagged by Netflix and the OTT screening will be done after the completion of its theatrical release. Let us find out what Kalyan Ram offered to viewers with his film Amigos.
Amigos movie story is all about three doppelgangers meeting in unexpected circumstances and the twists and turns that follow in their lives after their meeting. The story touches on the doppelganger concept to generate interest among movie lovers. Siddharth (Kalyan Ram), all of a sudden gets interested in the doppelganger concept. He tries to find out his doppelganger and much to his surprise and delight, he finds two in Manjunath (Kalyan Ram), a software engineer in Wpiro, Bengaluru, and Michael (Kalyan Ram) in Goa. They decided to meet in Goa.
They instantly get connected to each other and when everything goes well, NIA starts looking out for a dreaded arms dealer Bipin Roy. Where this leads to, what twists it brings in the lives of Siddharth, Manjunath, and Michael, and how RJ Ishika (Ashika Ranganath) is related to these developments, from the rest of the developments.
Kalyan Ram once again showed his penchant for creativity. Kalyan Ram is always known for doing different roles and novel plots and he selected a completely different and unheard plot in Tollywood. Kalyan Ram excelled in all three roles in an effortless manner. Kalyan Ram played the role of the happy-go-lucky guy Siddharth who leads a happy life with his family comprising of his parents and sister and who tries to woo the beautiful girl. He looked as youthful, jovial, and energetic in expressions as Siddharth.
In the role of Manjunath, he played the role of a software engineer who is innocent, honest, timid, and gets carried away by emotions. He showed variations in dialogue delivery and impresses all. In the role of Michael, Kalyan Ram looked menacing, macho, and stylish elevating the scenes to another level. However, compared to Siddharth and Michael, Manjunath's role is very limited. One feels, that Manjunath's role could have been highlighted more.
Ashika Ranganath got limited scope to perform. She looked good on screen and turned red-hot in the song Enno Raatrulu. Brahmaji and Jaya Prakash played the other roles and did their part accordingly.
Amigos Story selected by Rajendra Reddy on debut showed his passion for filmmaking and creativity. He touched upon the concept of doppelgangers and connected chords with the viewers instantly. But there ends all the talk of creativity and novelty. Rajendra Reddy though started the narration by introducing the concept of doppelgangers and then even all three roles to excite movie lovers rather than confuse them, he loses steam when he tried to highlight the romantic angle. The moment the romantic thread comes on screen, the pace in the narration dips, and viewers wait impatiently for the things to happen after the end of the romantic thread. The first half goes on a predictable note and the interval twist though predictable give a break with the lead to the second half.
Things start moving in the second half with all three doppelgangers taking the centre stage. People expected unexpected twists and turn to take them by surprise but everything goes on a predictable note though a lot happens in the second half. The lack of real twists and turns and the missing emotions played spoilsport with the proceedings. The screenplay of Rajendra Reddy is even but has its ups and downs. He however maintained the same pace most of the time. Even the climax is dragged for quite some time with the director ending it with the lead to the Amigos 2.
Ghibran's music is ok. Except for the hit song Enno Raatrlu, other songs do not register. The song is well shot but one gets a feeling that the musical instruments dominated the vocals. His background music is good but at times turned out to be extremely loud. The cinematography of Soundar Rajan is beautiful and rich. He turned the film into a rich capturing the scenic locations in a beautiful manner. Tammi Raju's editing is ok and could have been better especially in the first half as there are many drags. Editing in the second half is ok. Production values of Mythri Movie Makers are average.
Altogether, Amigos movie promised a lot and expectations soared after Kalyan Ram's success with Bimbisara. The thought of doppelgangers turned out to be mouthwatering for movie lovers. Director Rajendra Reddy created excitement with the doppelganger term, but except for the term, he offered nothing new. Kalyan Ram showed his expertise and proved that he is a versatile actor and with a little bit of fine-tuning of the script, Amigos would have reached another level. Had the doppelganger's characters been improved and touched upon more in detail, doing away with the romantic track and including more twists and turns in the screenplay removing the predictability, Amigos would have become another milestone for Kalyan Ram. Rajendra Reddy being a newcomer missed the golden opportunity. Considering all these aspects, Cinejosh goes with a 2.5 Rating for Amigos.