Arjun Reddy : How a Love Story Without Rules Changed Cinema While Giving Zero Fucks

Would you die for love ?

Would you give up everything you have for love ?

Being in love, nay, eternal and self less love is what everybody aspire for but just as we’re content at praising our defense forces from a distance instead of joining them or letting our loved one join them, we’re content with the ideal albeit tragic love stories from a distance.

That kind of love requires sacrifice.

I’ve heard countless stories about how someone loved somebody but married somebody else for practical purposes.

None of them happy. All of them still yearned for the love they lost.

It was a 10 PM show. I had travelled more than an hour to reach there.
A different city just to watch a film.
That too in Telugu.
It was a working day and I had office the next day as well.
I don’t remember being so excited for a film, ever.

Arjun Reddy is a love story which we need in Hindi cinema.
A story about you and me and not the glitz and glamour of the industry.
A story that’ll show us how painful and unforgiving it is to be in love.
How loving someone for a few years or may be months or may be weeks can fill you with unparalleled passion.

Directed by the debutant Sandeep Reddy who also wrote it, has managed to bring reality like never before on the celluloid with the help of Vijay Deverakonda.
I don’t think a lot of actors, and I’m considering the whole of Indian cinema, would’ve been as good as Vijay is in this film.
He pulls off a character when there isn’t much to like about him except for his undying and unflinching belief in his love and that’s probably the only reason why the audience and Preethi were standing by him when the credits started to roll in the end.

Arjun Reddy has become a sensation.

Not only in Andhra and Telangana but everywhere.
Even in the US.

They fall in love and then are torn apart.

And this is where Vijay soars high as an actor. It’s almost impossible to express the range of emotions that he did without actually going through the ordeals. He is unbelievably believable and with each passing scene he keeps getting closer to you.

You might not agree with him but you also can’t ignore his fierce intensity and his recklessness stemming from his isolation. His character manages to keep his arrogance intact even after the breakup but now it is just a facade to hide his pain and agony of helplessness.

Arjun Reddy awes you in the start.
His confidence, his anger, his perfection, are unlike any other character you’d see on the screen.
Equally evoking are the feelings when he starts spiraling down in the abyss after Preethi leaves him.

The easiest thing would’ve been to move on and find another girl, after all he was an extremely successful doctor and came from an affluent family but he chose the path of self-destruction.
He decided to give up everything he had for a love that wasn’t with him any more.

Would you do that for love ?
You would, I think, if you’re actually in LOVE.

There’s an ad going on these days on television for a rental cab service where they talk about falling in love, breaking up, falling in love again and continuing the cycle.

Nothing infuriates me more these days.

Rather than finding a new vagina or a penis to park yourself, it’s better to fall in love once and perish.
You’re anyway not doing any good by doing such debauchery and worse is that your kids, in case you have them, will learn from you and surpass your depraved mentality.

There’s a reason why a film like Veer-Zaara is remembered even today and is loved by all.
The film had no sex. But a separation of 22 years.
I have not met a single person who disliked Veer-Zaara, at least not yet.
There’s a reason.
Just think a little and you’d know.

We’re all afraid. We all want comfort. We all want a smooth life.

But then you’re stuck with someone for the rest of your life in a loveless marriage who’d most probably cheat on you.
(All the polls on infidelity show stark and sad reality)

That’s the reason why everybody is loving a film about a borderline sociopath who has anger issues and is an alcoholic and a drug addict.

Of course, he’s full of flaws. He has his shortcomings but in life, things are often looked in terms of balance. His good, perhaps his only good outweighs his many bad.

Thats the power of true love which is often overlooked amidst the chaos that we’ve conjured around us.

Arjun Reddy is an experience that wanes as we approach the conclusion but it was bound to happen. It is impossible to maintain the same level of storytelling for more than 3 hours of screen time where almost all of our filmmakers flounder even in films that clock less than 2 hours.

In a film like this, just like in life when we’re going through toughest of times, you need humor to survive.
A good laugh lets you live for another day.
Rahul Ramakrishna is a savior here.
He is more than a comic actor. He’s made a full fledged character of the usual stereotypical supporting comics.

I fear Vijay will go through a lot of trouble now.
Most of the actors, good actors spend their whole career waiting for a role like this.
ARJUN REDDY is just his 2nd film as a lead.
It’ll be really interesting to see how he shapes up his career because he might just be the next big thing.
And I’m not talking about regional cinema only.

I think the film works on multiple levels but the two things that I’d like to mention.
Real storytelling and almost pristine love story.

Sandeep broke the shackles of Telugu industry by his raw and energetic narrative and in the process gave us the legendary and cult character of Arjun Reddy.

I’m sure he’d be talked about as much as the Rahul of DDLJ.

But the reason youth connected with the film was because of a story that depicted something they’re too afraid to even strive for.

I’d say have some courage and fall in love.

And when you do, embrace it. All the good, all the bad, all the kisses, all the fights.

And most importantly, if you think it’s your LOVE,and most of us do know when it is, do not let it go, at any bloody cost.

Fight for it, and if it comes to a point, then till your last breath because you fall in love only once, every other time you’re only searching for the same person in other people.

And if the so called God has decided to keep misery in your life then embrace it too.
Cry your heart out.
Do not ever suppress pain or suffering because nobody else can go through that for you.
And keep trying to stay afloat if you can.

In the end, you’d rather come stronger and would be able to find happiness in your life in other things.
You’d not be able to find love, well you just might but life isn’t that kind, usually.

Or you’d perish. You’d have loved and lost.

Romeo and Juliet died after 4 days of meeting each other.
People don’t fall in love even after staying together for decades.

Time loses its significance here.

I believe it’s glorious to die only when you’re either defending your nation or you’ve lost yourself in love.

After all ,

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