Vakeel Saab didn’t sit right with me. I get that the story had to be changed for the Telugu Audience™️, but the essence of the story was lost. With the need for the massy entrance, the fight scenes, and the wildly inaccurate court scenes, the focus on the actual case lessened. The movie was more about Satyadev/Vakeel Saab, played by Pawan Kalyan, and how he handled the case. His anger, his alcohol consumption, and his absolute greatness were the top priorities in the film.
The movie begins by introducing Pallavi, Zareena, and Divya, and the problem they get into. Fairly quickly, the movie ushers into an unnecessary flashback to explain why Pawan Kalyan was so great, even though he drank too much. He was the typical masala hero: He got a fight scene, a love story, and a song, most of which was quite cliched. In court, he's an angry man who can't control his reactions and doesn't tolerate injustice. He flips tables, breaks chairs, speaks when not invited to, refers to other lawyers informally, and argues with the other lawyers. In the scene where one of the girls puts their hood on, he turns around, takes his shoe, and thrashes the people, and then proceeds to take her hood off. In Pink and Nerkonda Paarvai, this extra masala wasn’t added, and that’s what made Vakeel Saab stand lower than the rest.
In Pink, Amitabh Bachchan is a quiet lawyer, who doesn't create a ruckus in court. He didn't speak much throughout the court session, helping to thicken the plot. His statement at the end still remains iconic today. In Vakeel Saab, however, Pawan Kalyan recites many one-liners, from his introduction all the way to the end, causing the “No means NO” dialogue to possess little value, despite its importance in the film. His informal attitude worsens his credibility, making him seem careless. Just after the girls were found innocent, they go and fall at his feet while he sits in his broken chair like a king. The movie ends by explaining about Vakeel Saab’s greatness.
It's tailor-made for the Pawan Kalyan fan, but the focus isn't where it should've been: On the idea of consent and justice. With better writing and better characters, the film could've been much more than it was.
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