Adithya Varma Review: A genuine remake where Dhruv rocks

We are recently been presented with a lot of remakes!

And we also see that one particular movie that did well in one language, gets remade to multiple other languages.

Adithya Varma is one such remake.

The movie is about how the life of a free spirited, unapologetic young man takes twists and turns when the love (read, obsessive love) of his life gets married to another man.

For those who have watched Arjun Reddy, Adithya Varma might not bring anything new.

But still the “Tamil” twist and added elements make it special.

For one, Dhruv Vikram nails the title role and slips easily into the character.

Adithya Varma is a free spirited, carefree, unapologetic character that takes a bit of work to bring on screen.

Vijay Devarakonda aced the role of Arjun Reddy with much ease. And to do a faithful remake of that character is not an easy thing.

Fortunately, Dhruv has done that perfectly.

And it is good for him (his career) given that this debutante movie of his went through a lot of trouble since the start!

Banita Sandhu plays the female lead in the movie. To be honest, she has performed better than Shalini Pandey.

With Arjun Reddy, we wouldn’t have a clue about how involved the female lead is with the relationship.

It would only be evident that Arjun was forcefully pulling her into the relationship – to start with.

But Banita clearly emotes her interest and willingness into the relationship. And that makes us, the audience, root for their relationship as a whole!

The screenplay is almost flawless and keeps us engaged.

Supporting actors like Anbu Thasan (fitting performance), Priya Anand (apt) and Bags do their part well. Leela Samson as Aditya’s grandmother gives a decent performance.

The roles of Adithya and that of his girlfriend are strongly written. Other than that, the rest of the roles are so lightly written.

At some places, the supporting characters don’t perfectly fit well with the situations too.

The movie has a very good pace and engagement factor in the first half.

However the second half lags a bit, but regains pace and engagement towards the climax.

For those who have watched Arjun Reddy, Adithya Varma will be tolerable with no particular novel moment.

Also if you have watched Arjun Reddy, you would feel the pace to be decent and the run time to be endurable.

On the other hand, for those who have not watched the original, the movie would feel stretchy.

The movie is certified “A” and has a liberal dose of scenes involving smoking, drinking, doing drugs, kissing, intimacy and so on.

While it is true that the portrayal of the lead character of the movie could set a very bad example for today’s youth, the story of the movie demands such scenes.

And given the “A” certification, it is OK to accept the scenes as they are.

The movie’s run time and the bad portrayal of the lead character stand as two major minuses for those who have no clue about the original movie.

However, if you know Arjun Reddy, then you know these two are absolutely needed to convey the story aptly.

Dhruv carries the movie on his shoulders like a pro. It is quite hard to say that this movie is his debutante attempt.

He delivers his performance in a quite matured manner and holds the scenes with his presence.

In many scenes he simply outperforms his co-actors!

Cinematography by Ravi K. Chandran helps us get in the mood! The angles and lighting are set brilliantly too.

Radhan’s music works well with songs and BGM. The visuals also makes the songs enjoyable.

Overall, Adithya Varma is a genuine remake with some slight improvements to fit in and satisfy Tamil audience.

The screenplay, acting by Dhruv and apt casting make the movie enjoyable.

The lagging second half and a few minor glitches could have been avoided to make Aditya Varma even more impactful.

Adithya Varma is definitely worth the watch (if you are into this kind of movies).