The tagline of Ram Charan’s character in Game Changer may be unpredictable, but there is nothing unpredictable about veteran filmmaker S. Shankar’s debut Telegu movie. Like most Shankar films, Game Changer also deals with socio-political issues; this time the focus is on the ins and outs of electoral politics.
Ram Nandan (Ram Charan) returns to his hometown as the district collector of Visakhapatnam, hell bent on ending corruption. He goes up against minister and chief minister hopeful Mopidevi (S.J. Suryah), the son of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Sathyamurthy (Srikanth) who will stop at nothing to take his father’s spot even if it means bumping him off.
The plot then becomes one of one-upmanship between Ram and Mopidevi as each tries to foil the other’s plans — Mopidevi wants to win the elections at any cost; Ram wants to prevent him from winning, using constitutional powers.
Of course the hero always finds a way to outplay the villain at every turn and while the audience now knows that if 13 or more counting stations are attacked there will be a re-election, there is nothing very surprising about how the story plays out over the 165-minute runtime. Not to say that the film isn’t entertaining.
It’s always fun to see the hero outwit the villain without having to use fists all the time, though there are action sequences aplenty. The songs don’t work and no one will remember them once they have left the movie hall. The film also progresses at a breakneck speed, which is a good thing (it could have easily been at least 20 minutes shorter), but it does interfere with getting behind and rooting for any of the characters.
Kiara Advani, who plays Ram’s love interest Deepika, is reduced to a footnote as the woman who sent the angry young hero on the right path and then stood behind him as his pillar of support for the rest of her screen time. And there is very little chemistry between the two.
The best part of Game Changer is the flashback sequence in the second half where a village activist couple, Appanna (also played by Ram Charan) and Parvathy (Anjali), who joined politics for fair play, is shown to be betrayed by their own party members.
Ram Charan is way better as Appanna than Ram Nandan with the swag. Even his chemistry with Anjali, who makes the most of her screen time, is better than what he has with Kiara. The songs in the flashback are earthy and the treatment is the opposite of slick, which sets it apart from the rest of the film and works well. This section actually makes you root for Appanna and Parvathy.
Of course this section is linked back to Ram, but it feels pretty forced. And one isn’t entirely sure if the ending is actually constitutionally possible (will definitely have to look it up), but the ride wasn’t bad, even if it’s a very predictable one.