‘Extra Ordinary Man’ movie review: Vakkantham Vamsi and Nithiin’s film is hilarious in parts

‘Extra Ordinary Man’ movie review: Director Vakkantham Vamsi’s Telugu film ‘Extra Ordinary Man’, starring Nithiin, Sreeleela and Rao Ramesh is sometimes smart, sometimes silly and overstretched, but ensures plenty of laughs

Writer and director Vakkantham Vamsi’s Telugu film Extra Ordinary Man is one of the pleasant surprises this year. On the surface, it appears like a comedy that relies on gags. But there’s some smart writing that brings together gags, pop culture references and satire on the film industry to narrate how Abhi (Nithiin), a junior artist or an ‘extra’, becomes an extraordinary man. 

If you have watched the promos, you would be aware of the Baahubali reference, which has now become meme material. The film’s protagonist, Abhi, is a junior artist who is the seventh person in the sixth row singing ‘Dandalayya’. Always asked to step back on film sets, at home he counters his father’s (Rao Ramesh) acerbic remarks with quick wit. Vamsi wastes no time in setting up the premise. We listen to Abhi’s story as he narrates it to another artist, Selvamani (Sampath Raj). Neither of their artistic talents have been tapped. 

The film asserts that artists have no shame, or rather, should not have shame. So Abhi takes all the jibes in his stride. He is perpetually in the background, even in Srimanthudu, and no one has noticed him, except Likhita (Sreeleela), who remembers his face since her laptop hung when she was watching a film. 

If we expect Abhi, portrayed to have a sunny disposition at all time, to be brooding beneath the surface, the film side steps that weepy route. Vamsi also gets done with the pop culture references and the father-son tug of war in the initial portions since he wants to steer the narrative in a different direction.

For a while, the silliness is reminiscent of the recent Aadikeshava when the story shifts to a corporate set up. It almost looks like they have lost the plot, until Vamsi uses this set-up to show what can happen when an artist is lured back into the fickle industry where things can change at the bat of an eyelid.  

When the real twist happens, I smiled at how minutes ago Abhi enacted a Kantara-like possessed situation. As Abhi calls it, the ‘Maisamma screenplay’ takes over thanks to divine intervention from the goddess he has been praying to. 

Extra Ordinary Man sets itself up for a tough path and despite a few interesting points as to how it uses the fact that a film is never shot in chronology to push the story forward, it gets weary. At one point when Abhi asks if it is time for the climax, it is as though he can read the mind of the audience.