Movie: Hunt (Guns Don't Lie)
Genre: Action Thriller
Cast: Sudheer Babu, Bharat, Srikanth
Director: Mahesh Surapaneni
Produced By: V Anand Prasad
Music: Ghibran
Cinematography: Arul Vincent
Runtime: 132 Minutes (2hrs 12mins)
Story
Aryan (Bharat) is killed during his gallantry award ceremony. His friend ACP Arjun (Sudheer Babu) takes up the case and starts investigating. He with his other friend and commissioner Mohan (Srikanth) will be on this case. Arjun finds the killer and calls Mohan to tell him about it. When he is about to reveal killer's name on call, he is met with an accident and loses his memory. After he recovers, he doesn't remember anything about the case. How will Arjun solve the case? Will his memory loss be a barrier to him? Will Arjun catch Aryan's killer? This forms the rest of the story
Artiste Performances
Sudheer Babu does an excellent job. He looks fit and stylish as a cop. He gets a different characterization and he is very impressive in his role as the movie progresses towards the end. Especially from Pre-climax till the end, he has done a fabulous job. This is a brave attempt from Sudheer Babu and everyone will surely appreciate his performance and for taking up this role.
Bharat looks good and delivers a neat performance in the key role. Srikanth too delivers a fine performance. Chitra Shukla does well.
Manjula Ghattamaneni in her cameo is great. Apsara Rani gets the glamour to screens with the item song. The rest of the cast are Ok.
Plus Points
Sudheer Babu's performance
Storyline
Friendship thread
Action sequences
Pre-climax to climax sequence
Runtime
Visuals
Drawbacks (Which I Felt)
Flat narration in first half
Dull moments
Analysis
Hunt starts by establishing the protagonist's memory loss problem and the case he was handling before the accident. The initial portions are engaging and set the stage superbly. After that, the movie completely falls flat with the slow pace and no high moments.
Due to the flat narration, the audience might get bored for a while. There is a scene with Sudheer Babu and his doctor to know whether he can still solve the case with his mental condition. This scene is well executed.
Action sequences are one of the major assets of the movie. They are shot in a realistic way and the audience can feel the impact of every hit. Interest slowly builds up during Pre-interval to interval sequence, making it a good interval block.
The second half holds the complete emotional strength of the movie and is the soul of the movie. Director establishes the friendship thread in a matured way that the audience will surely connect to it.
The director packs the second half with superb thrills and twists that make the proceedings racy and interesting. The friendship angle fills up the emotional quotient of the movie and the conflict part too is shown in a convincing way.
As the movie comes towards pre-climax, a major twist is revealed and Sudheer Babu gives a terrific performance in this scene. From here till the end, Sudheer babu does a fantastic job. There is a long shot of him drinking and moving around the house which is excellently executed.
The confrontation scene between Srikanth and Sudheer towards the end of the movie is yet another superb scene in the movie. Sudheer gives an emotional performance where the audience can feel his pain and emotion.
The camera work is top-notch. Dialogues are Ok. Editing is good as the runtime is another plus. Fights and Action sequences are well choreographed. There is only one song in the movie that matches the mood. BGM could have been better.
Director had a terrific plotline to tell but flatters while narrating it. Though the first half has some pacing issues, he manages to bring everything together with the second half putting in some brilliant twists and turns.
(MY) Final Word
Hunt is an adaptation of the 2013 Malayalam neo-noir thriller "Mumbai Police" starring Prithviraj Sukumaran. The story and set-up are engagingly established but the flatly narrated first half plays the spoilsport here. The movie starts on an interesting note, then slowly the pace keeps going down, and again from the second half, the interest keeps building up and the movie ends with an unexpected and amazing twist on an emotional note. On a whole, Hunt ends up as a decent thriller.
Bottom-line: Sudheer's performance and the twists save this "Hunt" - A different and watchable thriller!
Note: This is my take on the movie. That is why I am not rating the movie. I respect each and every movie. Making people read my review and influencing them to form an impression of a movie before watching the movie is never my intention. I am a Movie lover too. This is just to express my view on the movie. 😊
Review by a Movie Lover