The Bunny Effect

Arya2 (Sukumar, 2009)

This film is insane.

I can’t really put it any other way: this film is completely, utterly mental; definitely one of a kind, and FREAKING AWESOME. Arya2 was my intro to “Stylish Star” Allu Arjun and I CAN’T FREAKING BELIEVE IT HAS TAKEN THIS LONG FOR ME TO HOP ON BOARD THIS PARTICULAR TRAIN.

THIS IS HOW AWESOME IT WAS:

1.Only a few hours after watching this film I was back on the ‘net eliciting the expert opinions on the best films to order to fulfil my NEED for more Allu Arjun. Guess what? I have some extremely knowledgable and wickedly encouraging Twitter/blog pals, particularly when it comes to the finer points of appreciating the…erm….QUALITIES of the actor fondly referred to as “Bunny”. INSTANT CONVERT. Bunny is my new honey.

 

What do you mean, this picture is completely gratuitous?

2. My laptop refuses to screencap the dvd. I think because the movie is so insanely awesome it would cause my laptop to spontaneously combust should images of it be permanently stored on my harddrive.

I doubt I would have been as immediately smitten had I chosen a different introductory film (although actually, apparently it’s quite common to react like this, according to my pals, who ARE the experts. “Ah”, they told me “you’ve been hit by the Bunny effect” – and regaled me with their own tales of seeing one Allu Arjun film and having to order a pile more immediately).

Arya2 – as I’ve already mentioned – is utterly mental, and I mean that literally. Allu Arjun plays the Arya of the title, and Arya, it is very rapidly revealed, is KIND OF A PSYCHO (albeit a psycho who turns out to have a heart of gold).

The story – omg, how am I even going to begin to recount the story? – begins in an orphanage, when a clearly disturbed child – our antihero Arya – decides to befriend (through manipulation and near drowning) another of the orphans: Ajay. That Ajay doesn’t particularly WANT Arya’s friendship doesn’t matter: Arya is a devoted friend. THE most scarily devoted friend anyone could ever wish to have. Arya gets Ajay’s name tattooed on his arm, such is his love for his new BFF, and he forces Arjun to reciprocate in kind, making them sort of tattoo-blood brothers. When a rich couple come to the orphanage and can’t decide which of the two to adopt, Arya and Ajay flip a coin to decide who gets a new life: Arya wins, but he sacrifices his victory and lets Ajay go with the couple and start a new life. Ajay is thrilled…not because he gets a new life, with new parents and a promising future, but BECAUSE HE IS FINALLY FREE OF ARYA.

But you KNOW Arya isn’t going to let go of his best friend just like that.

Skip forward a few years, and Ajay (Navdeep) is a successful computer engineer, and against his better judgement, gives his “old friend” Arya a job after Arya saves him by taking on some thugs who were hassling him. Because Arya is essentially a drunken thug himself, and because Ajay doesn’t want to hire him at all, he comes up with what he thinks is a foolproof loophole: Arya must be a PERFECT employee and the moment he makes a mistake, he’ll be fired.

Arya transforms seamlessly into Mr Perfect and becomes the most popular employee in the company, reknowned for his morals and good behaviour. Which frustrates the crap out of Ajay.

And then Geetha (Kajal Agarwal) enters the picture. Both Ajay and Arya fall in love with her, but while Ajay keeps a respectable, respectful distance, Arya embarks on a full-on stalk-a-thon; maintaining his Mr Perfect act for the rest of the company but revealing his “bad” side ONLY to Geetha: acting on impulse, chainsmoking, drinking – making Geetha seem like SHE’S crazy for protesting about “Mr Perfect” when the rest of the company refuse to believe her accusations against Arya. Finally, in desperation, Geetha professes her love for Ajay, just to get Arya off her back. Little does she know that aligning herself with Arya’s BEST FRIEND FOREVER is not the best way to get rid of Arya.

And this is where things REALLY get tangled. It’s best to just watch it because…omfg. The love triangle gets uber complicated with a fourth party and a gang war entering the picture, EVERYONE’S in love with Geetha, Arya manages to get…sort of accidentally married, there’s a super cute reference to Sholay, and somewhere along the way, Arya’s creepy stalker psychotic behaviour actually stops being genuinely scary and becomes genuinely loveable. This film actually made me go a) YAY A FILM THAT PORTRAYS STALKING AS TOTALLY SCARY RATHER THAN ROMANTIC AND HAS THE GIRL RECOGNISING THAT (because how many thousands of films have stalking = the ultimate in romance?) and then made me b) metaphorically punch myself in the face and simultaneously applaud the filmmaker for making me FALL IN LOVE WITH THE PSYCHOTIC STALKER.

I can’t really write much about this film without sounding like a huge Allu Arjun fangirl, because he freaking OWNS this film. Like, imagine this sentence is a cursory nod to the other performers in the film who all do a decent job. But seriously? ALLU ARJUN. His name is a FULL SENTENCE.

Also…THE SONGS! Are ADDICTIVE. Everyone has heard Ringa Ringa by now (even I had and I’m obviously WAY late to the game):

 

but can I just end this review with the song that I am OBSESSED WITH?

Check out the knee move and learn from others’ experience: leave it to the expert (Bunny).

I know this was a basically fangirly useless review but that should give you some idea of The Bunny Effect. BASICALLY DO WATCH THIS MOVIE BECAUSE IT IS GOOD. Okay? Good.