The latest edition to the superhero genre from India, Prasanth Varma’s HanuMan, starring Teja Sajja, Amritha Aiyer, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar and Vinay Rai in the lead roles, hit screens this Friday for Sankranthi. The film has received rave reviews nationwide, with many praising the cast and crew for pulling off the film on a limited budget. Here are our five reasons for watching the film. 

Prasanth’s story

Prasanth has a knack for picking wacky stories and entertainingly narrating them. If you see his debut film Awe in 2018, it’s one of the few films in south Indian cinema that dealt with the topics of mental illness, sexuality and gender in a sensitive manner. He followed that up with the 2019 film Kalki which proved that he can also pull off a commercial potboiler with a twist. The 2021 film Zombie Reddy, which incidentally also starred Teja, was a fun film about a zombie outbreak in Kurnool. And now, HanuMan delves into how a man from a small village gains superpowers when he comes across a totem.

The performances

HanuMan boasts of a stellar cast, not just with its four leads but also in supporting roles. Teja Sajja, Amritha, Varalaxmi and Vinay pour life into their characters, making us root for their characters or at least, approach them with empathy. When Teja is granted a superhero status from that of an underdog, you want him to know his worth. The same goes for Varalaxmi’s character. Getup Srinu and Satya have roles in the film that bring in light-heartedness, and so does Ravi Teja voicing a monkey with his trademark charm. The cameos by Sunishith and Rakesh Master also stand out, despite their limited screen time.

The VFX work

HanuMan was made on a limited budget compared to some of the star vehicles released across the country recently. Prasanth Varma once spoke to the press and revealed that he would use Chat GPT and Midjourney to make his vision come to life. The film’s CGI scenes help the fictional village of Anjanadri come to life, apart from a few animals. For the most part, the visual grammar of the film looks like something most filmmakers would require bigger budgets for. Fans who loved the film have also pointed out that the VFX in the film is noteworthy.

The intriguing characters

No matter how well a world is built, everything falls flat if the characters aren’t engaging. But Prasanth ensures that most of his characters are fleshed out so that they evoke empathy, even love. Teja’s Hanumanthu is, of course, the hero of this tale, someone who doesn’t know his own strength, much like the God Hanuman whom he gets his superpowers from. But Varalaxmi’s Anjamma and Amritha’s Meenakshi are anything but damsel-in-distresses, standing up to bullies just fine on their own. Even Vinay’s Michael gets a backstory that helps you understand how the same power could be used for evil if it falls into the wrong hands.

The cinematic universe

Prasanth is setting up his cinematic universe - Prasant Varma Cinematic Universe (PVCU) - with two films lined up after HanuMan. A sequel to the film, Jai Hanuman, is touted to be released in 2025. But before that, producer DVV Danayya’s son Kalyan Dasari will debut with Adhira, another superhero film which has already been announced. The first glimpse of the film shows how Hanumanthu wields a totem, the lead character in that film will gain powers akin to thunder and lightning.

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