HanuMan Review: Divine Blessings On A Modest Budget

HanuMan Star Cast/ Actors: Teja Sajja as Hanumanthu, Amritha Aiyer as Meenakshi, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar as Anjamma, Hanumanthu’s elder sister, Vinay Rai as Michael, Vennela Kishore as Siri Vennela, Getup Srinu as Kaasi

HanuMan Release Date: January 12, 2024

HanuMan Available On: Theatrical Release and (likely to be released on Zee5 digital Platform)

HanuMan Released/ Available In Languages: Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, Marathi, English, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese

HanuMan Runtime: 158 Minutes

HanuMan Critic Review:

Thanks to Marvel and to our very own Rohit Shetty, filmmakers no longer use the term ‘franchise’; each creates a cinematic universe of his own.

Prashanth Varma Cinematic Universe (PVCU) takes off with a unique idea. A kid obsessed with becoming a superhero, his wicked lust for power showing up early when he destroys his parents who stand in his way. Michael (Vinay Rai) the antagonist has been created with Siri (Vennela Kishore), his scientist-assistant manning an elaborate lab a la Iron Man.

Surrounded by jungles and mountains, somewhere deep inside is the make-believe world of Anjanadri with a huge Hanuman on the mountain face. Here’s where unlikely hero Hanumanthu (Teja Sajja), quite content to steal and live off his older sister Anjamma (Varalaxmi Sarathkumar), roams around, an unerring marksman with his rubber sling and glass marbles. It’s not heroic but Hanumanthu has one of the best entries seen in recent times as he playfully outwits a monkey on the verge of plucking a mango. Hanu and monkey chase the mangoes on the trees, the sling wins each time.

Director Prashanth Varma and Scriptsville make Anjaneya (Hanuman, Bajrang Bali) omnipresent, his mythological strength inspiring confidence that He is around to take care of things – names like Anjanadri, Anjamma, the monkey turning a narrator, the many visuals, on the mountain, in the air.

If anyone was looking to see the story of Lord Hanuman being retold, this isn’t the film for it. If a viewer awaits more information on Lord Rama’s most ardent devotee with unique physical strength and skills, Prashanth Varma is not catering it.

What Varma does is to use Lord Hanuman as the symbol of strength for a superhero, a young man inclined to naughtiness and romance before he understands the power invested in him by godly forces. He’s not God, he’s a mere superhero, fallible like a human. All his childhood and now his youth have been expended in trailing Meenakshi (Amritha Aiyer), he can’t keep his eyes off her. It’s cute when his sling wins even a lemon-and-spoon race for Meenakshi in their early days.

There’s also cuteness in a dabba in the kitchen that Hanu can’t open, his sis does with ease. In fact, it’s the brother-sister track that has the most potent cache of emotions.

Like all villains, Michael lands with Siri in Anjanadri, seeking what gives Hanumantha his unique strength. He’s sent on a comic wild goose chase and several more before he finds and covets the source of Hanumantha’s powers.

It’s quite a cinematic feat that unlike Marvel or Dharma’s Brahmastra, an entire film of this magnitude with fights and much special effects has been made on a budget of Rs 55 crore. Considering the budget, give it to Prashanth and cinematographer Dasaradhi Sivendra for creating the feel of awesomeness with a wicked, lab-powered antagonist and a divinely blessed superhero.

A pickle-making sequence is colourful. The monkey’s appearances are timely. The comic touches with the shopkeeper are amusing.

Where it falters is in the writing which should’ve been sharper, tighter and far more interesting. The fight scenes too required variety and imaginative choreography. Underbaked is also the characterization of heroine Meenakshi who shouts for an ambulance every few scenes instead of showing any ‘doctory’, and switches affections like a bimbo until she finds the man with the unerring sling, her silent protector.    

However, given the budget, the all-round entertainment and divine blessings topped with the Hanuman Chalisa at the end, HanuMan is a winner. Especially in the prevailing social climate.    

And Teja Sajja carries the film combining vulnerability with venerable power.

HanuMan – Watch Or Not?: There will be many who’ll watch it, especially in the south. You may as well join them. But hopefully, PVCU will spend more effort in writing a spiffier screenplay the next time around.

HanuMan Review Score Rating: 3 out of 5

HanuMan Official Trailer:

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