Last updated: 28 April 2023

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Film: Agent (Telugu)

Directed by: Surender Reddy

Cast: Akhil Akkineni, Mammootty, Dino Morea, Sakshi Vaidya

Highs: Akhil Akkineni’s performance, screen presence and the tremendous energy he brings to every scene, brilliant Mammootty in a tailor-made role, good performance by Dino Morea, impressive cinematography (Rasool Ellore), entertaining and unpredictable first-half

Lows: Weak writing (Vakkantham Vamsi, Surender Reddy) and direction (Surender Reddy) in the second half, excessive runtime (especially second half), stretched and repetitive action scenes, distracting songs (except Malli Malli), lip sync errors when Sakshi Vaidya speaks, inconsistent editing and mediocre VFX

Cinemania rating: ★★½☆☆

Plot: Agent begins with Ricky alias Ramakrishna (Akhil Akkineni) shooting dead Devil alias Mahadev (Mammootty), the chief of India’s spy agency RAW. Ricky is also believed to be dead and the story shifts to Ricky’s past as an extraordinarily-skilled ethical hacker living in Hyderabad, who harbours an ambition to join RAW. He gets through to the interview stage thrice but fails to make the cut in all those attempts. Ricky realises the only way to get the job is to grab the attention of Mahadev and impress him. Meanwhile, he falls in love with a young aeronautics professional Vidya (Sakshi Vaidya) who has received a job offer from NASA and is set to depart to the USA in a few days. Some unexpected events lead Mahadev to recruit Ricky and send him on a secret mission to find and kill God (Dino Morea), the head of a secret group called Syndicate which is intent on controlling and eventually destroying India. The rest of the story is about whether or not Ricky manages to capture God, what is the relationship between God and Devil and why Ricky kills God.

Performances: Akhil Akkineni does an excellent job as the eponymous character, bringing enormous energy to every scene he features in. The actor appears to have worked very hard for his role and has acting has vastly improved when compared to his previous films. Mammootty is brilliant in a role that he has performed numerous times in his illustrious career. Dino Morea, in his Telugu debut, delivers an impactful performance as the antagonist. Sakshi Vaidya makes a good impression in her debut film, however there are lip-sync errors when she speaks (editing mistakes).

Technical departments: The cinematography by Rasool Ellore is top notch. Background music by Hiphop Tamizha gels well with the action scenes, however the songs aren’t catchy (expect the Malli Malli song) and they come across as a distraction from the plot. The action scenes are well-choreographed despite being stretched but the VFX is disappointing. Editing (Naveen Nooli) is inconsistent in several scenes – action scenes are too stretched and given more importance than key conversation scenes and other crucial episodes that are hastened. The second half is too long and needed trimming.

Screenplay and direction: The first-half of Agent is an entertaining “wild” ride as the story progresses at a brisk pace despite the distracting romantic track between Rama Krishna and Vidya. However, the second-half is let down by a weak screenplay and successive illogical episodes (for example, gangsters randomly shooting down the attendees at the memorial event of a central government minister, a most-wanted criminal simply walking into RAW headquarters and getting out unscathed, the whole “driven by ego” concept, etc). The done-to-death patriotic theme and dialogues get repetitive and boring. The climax fight is exhausting to watch.

Overall, Agent has an entertaining first-half with interesting plot twists but the writing and direction in the second-half is so poor that even the good performances of Akhil Akkineni, Mammootty and Dino Morea are no longer able to salvage the film.

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