Game Changer, as directed by Shankar, like many of his films, is about a messiah who battles against the system for the masses. Ram Charan gets on the journey to become an IAS officer since Kiara Advani wanted him to do so. Later, Ram clashes with the chief minister, Bobbili Mopidevi, and becomes the chief minister himself.
The film has love, politics, action, and drama, but it is all scattered. The glue that binds all these is missing.
What is Game Changer about?
Ram Nandan, on his way to his posting as an IAS in Visakhapatnam, is attacked by a gang that is involved in sand mining under the contract of Bobbili Mopidevi, the son of Chief Minister Bobbili Sathyamoorthy.
Mopidevi has always wanted to be the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh; therefore, he ended up killing his father. He later clashes with Ram Nandan, who vows to pull all the wrongdoers out of the system.
The heroine is lost
Game Changer has a lot of nice scenes that are put together. Individually, these scenes are a delight to watch, but together, they don’t make much sense. For example, the love story between Ram Charan’s Ram Nandan and Kiara Advani’s Deepika is quite well planned. It is a sweet love story where Deepika doesn’t like Ram’s anger issues, advising him to become an IAS officer so that his anger gets channelled for people’s welfare.
But the way the story unfolds in the second half, Kiara’s character gets lost in the whole political drama.
Too much action is no game changer
We can safely call Shankar’s film a political action film, but the film loses its focus at some points. The film overflows with action, but that too doesn’t suit the storyline at times. Action is a significant part of the film, but a line must be drawn somewhere, right?
Ram Charan, flying in a helicopter, cuts the ropes of goons tied to the railway track just before the train comes, which is too much to handle.
Characters are lost midway
The film has a lot of irregularities in terms of characters also. It is sad that Ram’s ‘family‘ doesn’t get to do anything, except at the beginning when his mother says, “You have become an IAS now; earlier you were IPS…but when will you get married?” To which he replies with anger because of his love for Kiara Advani. After this, the family vanishes into oblivion.
Shankar’s heroes: Part of the system, above it as well
In most of Shankar’s films, his heroes don’t serve the authorities, as his heroes mostly play characters that are a part of the system but above it as well. Nothing can stop his heroes from stemming the corruption out of the system while being a part of it at the same time. Probably the reason his hero in Game Changer is so diverse. He is a young lover working on his anger to win Kiara’s love. He is a small-time reformer who wants to eradicate corruption. He is an IPS officer. He is an IAS officer. He later becomes the chief minister. It is almost like seeing Shankar’s utopia-weaved film, exactly what people want, with the presence of a star like Ram Charan, who could be all of these things and a lot more in a film that allows him to be anything he wants to be.
The past flashbacks make it interesting
In the film, Sathyamoorthy keeps on getting flashbacks where a woman with a son is walking towards him. These are the wife and son of the man whom Satya killed to become the chief minister.
Satya was guilty and therefore decided to do everything honestly as a CM. The past story makes the boring writing a bit interesting.
Too much utopia in Game Changer
Shankar’s films are all about justice. Deepika tells Ram Nandan to not become an IPS officer because his anger would mean giving justice to people not as per law but by killing people. But, as an IAS officer, Ram’s actions are again instant. One sign, and the corrupt official is out of his position and thrown into the air. One order and the entire mall crashed down. One shot, and he eradicates corruption surrounding ration shops. In one monologue, he changes the mind of an entire village to not vote for money. There is no doubt that to pull audiences to cinema, one needs to show utopia to some extent, but again, there needs to be a line.
Shankar’s film lacks boundaries. The main character is everything: IAS, then chief minister, a good son, and even a loyal partner. It is shown as if there is nothing Ram Charan cannot do in the film. We want to see a utopia, but one that appears achievable. Shankar’s films, in large number, have such reformers who have constantly been changing society. But what sense does it make if the hero is fighting against a problem that he already fought in the past in some other film?
Writing falters but acting remains impressive
The writing of the film falters at points. It seems like many good sequences or characters are written, and then they are forced to tie together to make sense. The two halves of the story are also in complete contrast to each other. In the first half, Ram Nandan has become the IAS to reform the system, but in the second half, the story is completely focused on electoral politics.
Game Changer kept us glued to the screens with good performances. Ram Charan as Ram Nandan does a wonderful job and delivers an impressive performance in a role that needed more diversity. Anjali also gives it all to the role that doesn’t get much in return. On the other hand, Kiara managed to get an important character in Game Changer that didn’t go latent under the shadow of the hero. She does well too, but again, after a while, the faulty writing forgets her.
In the past, Shankar has been criticised a lot for his films, and it seems like he is trying to improve his mistakes. However, he still seems confused about what the audience wants and what his gut feeling says. The film can be called his comeback, but not at all a game changer.
