‘Pepe’ Movie Review: Vinay Rajkumar’s action drama is stylish but shallow

Vinay Rajkumar in ‘Pepe’. | Photo credit: PRK Audio/YouTube

In Pepe, Director Srilesh S Nair’s pillars of support are music composer Purnachandra Tejaswi and cinematographer Abhishek Kasaragod. The director’s world-building is driven by Tejashwi’s chilling score and Abhishek’s fluent shots

Srilesh sets up Pepe with subtle conviction. Apart from the background, he introduces a lot of characters to increase the curiosity. When we hear the story of two fictional villages divided by a stream, it feels like we are preparing for an epic unfolding. People in one sector care about fame, while in the other they struggle for livelihood.

The oppressed are exploited by the dominant caste to extract sand from the stream. A brave family from the underclass fights for equality, and all hell breaks loose between the two groups. At the center of this resurgence from the downtrodden is Pradeep aka Pepe, a short-lived youth. He is known for pursuing things that have denied him.

Apart from caste discrimination, the film also speaks about women’s rights. Kajal Kundar plays the role of a young woman from an upper caste family. He is an eccentric in a conservative family, encouraging young women to question the prejudices against them.

The film repeatedly cuts between present and past scenes. The flashback is in black and white, almost like revisiting an old album Some powerful dialogues do justice to the progressive vision of the film.

After doing all the hard work to establish the main plot, Srilesh throws his hands in the air and Pepe The film crumbles under the weight of its own expectations. The idea of ​​taking a stand with the poor is commendable. However, Srilesh fails to execute his subject because he fails to show the daily life of the local people.

Pepe A violent film with lots of action sequences. Some of the action scenes are creatively choreographed, yet, the sheer absence of drama in the second half leaves no lasting impact as the gruesome fights fail to make a lasting impact. The blood-fest inevitably kills the plot of the movie.

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Pepe goes through a range of emotions, but we see a straight-faced Vijay Rajkumar deliver a performance that’s no different from his previous filmography.

The screenplay, after a point, continues in circles. You feel that the filmmaker is too adamant to move the story forward as the characters struggle to overcome their past traumas. A major reason for this lack of initiative in storytelling is the current trend of releasing a film in two parts. Pepe, Also, according to the manufacturers “to be continued”. But isn’t it always better to tell a solid, compelling story in one piece?

Pepe is currently playing in theaters