Varun Tej's committed performance somehow rescues Matka from being a pointless venture with stylish flourishes and interesting ideas, observes Arjun Menon.
Releasing a few weeks after Lucky Bhasker, Matka is another Telugu period drama about a conniving financial scam. It signals the increasing fascination of Telugu film-makers with stories of anti-heroes who thrive in a financial system replete with loopholes that can be weaponised by highly determined individuals.
But unlike Lucky Bhasker, this Varun Tej starrer is a not-so-novel attempt at recycling the tropes of this sub-genre with an emphasis on the larger-than-life persona of the hero, a direct offset of the 'Rocky Bhai' archetype, often engaging in fiery one lines and larger-than-life dressing choices.
We follow the rags-to-riches tale of a clever, cocksure young man, who charts a way for himself by hook or crook, often ready to take on divisive decisions.
The film kickstarts by tracing back our gambler hero's early days as an immigrant child, who is forced to make his way inside a juvenile home, where he has no one but himself to bet on to survive.
Kishore Kumar draws out a flimsy roadmap into our hero's psyche and why he ends up becoming the street-smart crime figure, through this childhood episode.
The film is careful in not stepping over the moral boundaries of the hero, after he is let out of the prison as a young man, years later.
There is no dearth of movies on this subject and it's unfair to judge a film for its reliance on cliches and conventions if they are packaged in an interesting way.
But Matka is not interested in breaking any new ground.
The makers are happy to go through the motions and deliver a stylised, retro-themed masala entertainer that does its thing, without offering a fresh take on the jaded tropes that need a little more than a rehash sensibility.
Vasu (Varun Tej) finds it hard to remerge to a fully functioning society, where his passion for personal growth outsizes everyone around him.
The film builds up a roaster of characters who pass through and some who tag along on his journey.
Matka is said to be partially inspired by the real-life gambling scam referred to as 'matka' that made news in the late 1960s up until the early 1990s.
Varun Tej is playing a fictionalised version of Ratan Khatri -- who is said to have dominated the matka business -- and there is no way to know how much the makers are borrowing from real events. But his gradual ascent and romantic fling keep things moving and you never get bored.
Sujatha (Meenakshi Chaudary) brings some stability into his life and the romantic angle is worked out in a mostly tasteful manner sans any overtly crass scenarios, a staple of similarly themed films.
The leading lady doesn't get to do much but somehow the chemistry between the two leads keeps it interesting.
We are led into the overpopulated world of matka gambling that involves scheming and we see the hero's fast rise up the ranks. But there is not much going on by way of dramatic storytelling and we sit back and watch bloated set pieces and action blocks unfurl, with little to no impact by way of its setups and payoffs.
G V Prakash Kumar tries his best to elevate the mood with his score but the overtly packed songs accentuate the feeling of nothingness.
The supporting cast involves faces like Naveen Chandra, Ajay Ghosh and Kishore, who balance out the excessive dependence on Varun Tej, as a single hinge of the dirty games of one-upmanship in the gambling business that ensues.
Varun Tej gets to play the gambler at various stages of his life and we buy into his physicality and styling in various phases, along with his impeccable spirit of survival. But there is only so much the actor can do to salvage an underwritten, thinly sketched out crime saga, where thrills are hard to come by.
He looks convincing as the devil-may-care mastermind, who can wield the gun with style and deliver some pulpy non sequitur.
The machinations of the business and his fight for supremacy echo earlier films of ilk.
The visual flair of Kishor Kumar's captivating colours maintains a visual consistency in the film that covers a period of 24 years, covering the 1950s to the 1980s aesthetic with adequate panache.
The hero suggests the thin line between concepts of good and evil in some places but the film never stops to ponder over the bigger questions. It is content dolling out the expected pleasures of the genre.
The lack of conviction in the morality and deeper aspects of the hero's journey hamper this exercise and resist from becoming anything substantial.
Varun Tej's committed performance somehow rescues the film from being a pointless venture with stylish flourishes and interesting ideas. But the bland superficiality thrives, and Matka becomes a forgettable action flick that will leave no real impact.
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