Arjun Reddy: Ram Gopal Varma sees Amitabh Bachchan, Al Pacino in Vijay Deverakonda

Arjun Reddy, the new Telugu film starring Vijay Deverakonda and Shalini Pandey that released on Ganesh Chaturthi, has taken the twin Telugu speaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh by storm. Not just that, this tiny film has blown away competition from the other heavyweight, Ajith’s Vivegam, that released around the same time in the southern states.

Arjun Reddy tells the story of a brilliant medical student who is also an alcoholic and how his life goes berserk after he loses his lady love.

Variously hailed as being the most original film to being called raw, pure, bold, intense and well written, the film has been winning all-round praise. The actor and director combine of Vijay Deverakonda and Sandeep Vanga Reddy have been praised for taking Telugu cinema to places it has never been.

Fans and celebs have been heaping praise on the film, Vijay’s performance and the director’s vision. Among the most prominent is, of course, maverick filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma.

Writing on his Facebook page, Varma wrote how Vijay did not need ‘slow motion and ramping shots’ to make his character look heroic. “Vijay Deverakonda is the first and only actor I ever saw who looks like a hero without the help of any slow motion or ramping shots.”

He added how Vijay reminded him of a young Amitabh Bachchan and a young Al Pacino and how he would set into motion the idea of a new age hero. He said, “I think Vijay Devarakonda is a combination of a young Amitabh Bachchan and a young Al Pacino and I strongly believe that he will be the trendsetter prototype for a new age hero.”

Impressed by the intensity Vijay could channel into his portrayal, he said: “Vijay is the first actor I saw apart from Amitabh Bachchan who could live up to that same level of intensity without the aide of any cinematic techniques.”

Varma reserved much of his praise for director Sandeep Vanga Reddy too. He observed how if films are an extension of the director’s personality, they are likely to stay with the audience much longer. He wrote, “... only those films which look like an extension of the directors personality are the ones which will really leave a mark on the audience’s minds and after a long time I am seeing that happening with Sandeep and his film Arjun Reddy.”

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Celebs have been tweeting incessantly.

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