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When the trailer for Funky dropped, Vishwak Sen seemed to be shaking off the traditional 'mass hero' for good. Out today ahead of its February 13th release, the teaser is a real eyebrow raiser - and that's without even getting to what director Anudeep KV has in store for us. With Jathi Ratnalu still riding its cult status, the trailer now makes it clear that he is doubling down on "logical illiteracy" - and that should give you a good idea of what he's got cooking in the kitchen with this one.
The trailer doesn't just promise a comedy, though - it's promising a tongue in cheek skewering of the very industry that put up the cash for it. Sen plays Komal, a director whose career is pretty much over - and so are his professional prospects, it seems - as he tries to sell a script to producer Kayadu Lohar. It's pretty much like the whole movie around them is falling apart at the seams and plummeting into pure, unadulterated slapstick. But the take-down is pure highlights, especially where a film's budget leaps from 4 crores to 40 crores just because the people behind it "felt like it". It's that kind of inside baseball that the folks in Tollywood will know and love, and general audiences will find completely, utterly bizarre.
Anudeep's all over this trailer - namely in those awkward, straight-faced pauses that have become his trademark as a director. He's also got some solid support from veterans like VTV Ganesh and Naresh, who in turn seem to be letting Sen just let rip - no melodrama, no fuss. The retro-funk score courtesy Bheems Ceciroleo is the icing on the cake, but it's that wild, "logic-less" comedy that really has us hooked. In an industry that's gone mad on producing 500 crore spectacles, Funky looks like the low-key middle finger that the box office really needs this February.