Uma Maheshwara Ugra Roopasya: What seems like a frame-to-frame remake is actually much more.

Remakes are the trend in Indian cinema nowadays. Telugu movies are being remade in Hindi, Malayalam films are getting more notice and remakes, and Tamil movies are being remade in Telugu. Some of these remakes didn't exactly work over the last year though, like ABCD, Jaanu, and Gaddalakonda Ganesh. Let's take 96 and Jaanu. I would honestly prefer 96. Jaanu, though it was literally an exact, same-to-same, color Xerox copy, lacked that magic that was in 96. Probably the pace, but whatever. We'll call it magic. Sounds cooler.

Uma Maheshwara Ugra Roopasya is more than what meets the eye (literally). It's a fresh remake that's filled with little jokes and a big heart. It has that MAGIC. We get realistic acting and realistic characters in what seems to be a sweet, almost dissolving (in a good way), revenge story. The beginning of the movie makes you think that it's gonna be a frame-to-frame copy of Maheshinte Prathikaram. What we get, instead of just a regular remake, is a strong, funny, and honest movie.

The grandpa was the best character. He lived his life the way he wanted, and ignored the haters. The only thing that irritated me a little bit was Suhas being an NTR fan. I'm more fine with Mahesh Babu, even though I'm not a fan of either of them. But whatever. The fan wars are real. And I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that the movie started another fan war between NTR fans and Mahesh fans.

The best part of the movie: The people were all REAL. They weren't like the light-skinned, supermodel heroines, or the strong, cool, mass hero. These people were just natural, normal, brown Indians. Not a single one of them seemed out of place. THIS is the kind of cast that a village movie should arrive for.

The director, Venkatesh Maha, last directed C/O Kancherapalem, so I was thinking that either UMUR would be like that, or just be really bad because of that second film sentiment thing in the industry. A lot of directors broke that sentiment, though, like Shiva Nirvana with Majili. Venkatesh Maha is another one of those directors. He didn't just COPY Maheshinte Prathikaram. He added the Telugu comedy, the Twitter trolling thing, the fan wars, the village was, and the telugu flavor to it, and he didn't do it forcefully. It was nice. It was sweet.

I think that in the Telugu film industry, the audience expects the hero or heroine to ACHIEVE their goal. And usually, it's a epic face-off between the hero, (who's perfect in everything, only flaw is how cool he is (too cool for school sometimes. Literally)) and the villain (who happens to be a clumsy idiot filled with flaws and can't do anything right without his goons.)

But in UMUR, what we get is a hero (played really sweetly by Satyadev) who kind of loses his need for revenge when all these new things come into his life. He only goes back to take revenge because he made a promise (in front of basically everyone) that he wouldn't wear his shoes until he gets revenge. There's that flaw he kinda has. He's not doing it for anyone. He's doing it for himself, to feel that sense of closure, I guess. He's doing it so that he doesn't get a bad name in his village, where news spreads like wildfire. In masala movies, the hero would show off his cool, random skill that's kinda god-given at the moment and defeats the bad guy while the girl is just sitting on the side. Just existing. I'm sure even the girl would just want to get up and leave if their characters weren't written simply as Barbie dolls.

I'm glad the Telugu Film industry has STARTED to turn over a new leaf. I really don't like masala movies.

A hero doesn't have to be THE hero, and this movie proved it.