Adithya Varma movie review: Dhruv Vikram is earnest, sincere in this remake of Arjun Reddy
Adithya Varma movie review: The highlight of this faithful remake of Telugu hit Arjun Reddy is the performance of debutant Dhruv Vikram. He is refreshing and sincere as a flawed medical student.
Adithya VarmaDirector: GireesayyaCast: Dhruv Vikram, Banita Sandhu, Priya Anand, Daggubati Raja and Leela Samson
If there’s one thing that Adithya Varma — Tamil remake of Arjun Reddy gets bang on – is that it allows debutant Dhruv Vikram to really make his presence felt and arrive in style. Even if you watched Arjun Reddy and its Hindi remake Kabir Singh and were enamored by the performances of Vijay Deverakonda and Shahid Kapoor respectively, you’d still find Dhruv Vikram’s performance refreshing, earnest and sincere in Adithya Varma, and that’s one of the reasons why this remake works.
When Arjun Reddy released in 2017, it was celebrated because it ventured into a space Telugu cinema hadn’t dared to enter until then. It proved that any story, when told with conviction, will be accepted and celebrated. The film paved the way for a new chapter in Telugu filmdom. Will Adithya Varma herald a new chapter in Tamil cinema? Maybe not, but what it does manage to do is to present a faithful remake of the original without tampering the soul which made Arjun Reddy controversial, unabashedly bold and hard-hitting. Adithya Varma, as a remake, takes the safe route of recreating Arjun Reddy frame-to-frame but it still manages to impress with minor changes to suit Tamil sensibilities.
Dhruv Vikram makes a confident debut. He breathes life into the character and it’s unfair to compare him with Vijay Deverakonda but Dhruv couldn’t have played the character more convincingly. Be it his passion, love, and rage; he portrays these several layers of his character with unparalleled realism. Dhruv’s performance as a college-goer with serious anger issues or as the alcoholic surgeon will leave you in awe of his versatility in pulling off such diverse avatars with ease, as if it was child’s play.
Adithya Varma presents Dhruv’s character from different perspectives and from each point of view; we get to understand him even better. For Adithya’s father, his son’s actions are stains on his prestige. For his friends, his actions show his recklessness and free-spirited attitude. For Preethi, Adithya’s actions show his madness and unwillingness to change, which she eventually embraces. We get to learn more about Adithya - his strengths, his weaknesses and flaws - from every character around him.
Also read: Actor Vikram’s son Dhruv on Adithya Varma: ‘My dad gave up a lot of things for this project’
Adithya Varma is as lengthy as Arjun Reddy and it does get slightly restless in the second half, especially if you watched the original. But the performance of Dhruv Vikram really elevates the film even in the blandest sequences. Dhruv is a promising talent and no matter how Adithya Varma performs at the box office, he’s here to stay and make a mark. Banita Sandhu as Meera is aptly cast and she really sells the vulnerability of her character quite convincingly.
