Extra Ordinary Man

''Extra Ordinary Man'' is a 2023 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film written and directed by Vakkantham Vamsi. It stars Nithiin and Sreeleela, alongside Rajasekhar, Sudev Nair, Rao Ramesh, Rohini and Sampath Raj. The film was released theatrically on 8 December 2023 and received mixed to negative reviews from critics, where the film became a box-office bomb.

Plot

Abhinay alias Abhi, a new recruit in the gang of Selvamani, a drug lord and music freak, narrates his past to Selvamani.

Past: Abhi, a junior artist with aspirations of becoming a mainstream actor in Telugu cinema, lives in Hyderabad with his parents Somsasekharam and his Usha. Abhi meets Likitha, a businesswoman, and they both begin to fall for each other. Abhi gets a job at her company, but Abhi soon resigns from the job after he gets a chance to act as the lead role in a film directed by his friend Rakesh. Somashekaram kicks him out of the house after learning about his resignation. However, Rakesh changes his mind and removes Abhi from the film.

Abhi gets heartbroken and goes to a dhaba for a drink, where he gets into a fight with some goons and thrashes Loki, the brother of a dreaded gangster Nero. Abhi gets surprised that Nero is the name of the antagonist in Rakesh's script. Additionally, Abhi also learns that all the occurring events are based on the script. Abhi assumes that this is all God’s will so that he doesn't act in the film and he follows the written script and recreates it in real life. After that, Abhi confronts Nero as SI Sai "Saitan" Nath (the main protagonist of the script) and challenges Nero to defeat him. After knowing the facts, Nero confronts Abhi and burns the script.

After that, Abhi makes a pact with Nero to raise him as the protagonist against him and Nero can later kill him to sustain his power. As per the plan, Sai stops the crimes of Nero, which results in a fierce confrontation. Meanwhile, Likitha, Somasekharam and Usha arrives to meet Abhi, assuming that he is in a film shooting. After observing the true situation, they decided to act in front of the villagers as Likitha's parents, who made Abhi act like an orphan. The villagers take the initiative to fix the marriage of Abhi and Likitha. Later, Nero pulls IG Vijay Chakravarthy into the issue, but Vijay, after believing the facts, stands by Abhi and adds more fuel to the fire.

In a final confrontation, Nero stabs Abhi and sends his real identity to Vijay to declare him a cop to save their reputation. However, Abhi manages to survive and tells Nero that the last confrontation is the pre-climax of the film and tells that Nero's death is the film's ending. Abhi kills Nero in front of Vijay, but Vijay manages the situation and gives Abhi a new identity to catch Selvamani.

Present: After narrating his past, Abhi arrests Selvamani, who leaves his revenge on Abhi because of his admiration for his performance. Later, Vijay assigns a new task for Abhi to capture an international gangster.

Cast

As per the film's end credits:

* Nithiin as Abhinay "Abhi"
* Sreeleela as Likitha
* Rajasekhar as IG Vijay Chakravarthy
* Sudev Nair as Nero
* Rao Ramesh as Somasekhar
* Rohini as Usha
* Sampath Raj as Selvamani
* Brahmaji as Pathro
* Ajay as Traffic police officer Bhaskar
* Harsha Vardhan as Mohanthi
* Suman as DGP S. Arjun Baldev
* Annapurna as Likitha's grandmother
* Pavitra Lokesh as Likitha's mother
* Ravi Varma as Patnaik
* Hyper Aadi as Constable Ganga
* Jagadeesh Prathap Bandari as Abhinay's friend
* Soniya Singh as Constable Valli
* Satyasri as Constable Lakshmi
* Hari Teja as Sam
* Srikanth Iyengar as Anand Rao
* Prudhvi Raj as Yadav
* Shiva Ramachandravarapu as Rocky
* Satya Krishnan as Likitha's aunt
* Chatrapathi Sekhar as Villager
* Pradeep Kondiparthi as Likitha’s grandfather
* Sivannarayana Naripeddi as Abhi’s uncle (uncredited)
* Chammak Chandra as Paidthalli (uncredited)
* Jani Master as a special appearance in the song "Ole Ole Paapaayi"

Production

The principal photography of the film started in June 2023. The filming was completed in 60 days and wrapped up in August 2023.

Soundtrack

The music and background score are composed by Harris Jayaraj. The audio rights were acquired by Aditya Music. The first single, "Danger Pilla", was released on the 2 August.

Release

Theatrical

''Extra Ordinary Man'' was expected to be released on 23 December 2023 during Christmas, but was preponed to 8 December 2023.

Home Media

The film was premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on 19 January 2024 in Telugu and Tamil languages.

Reception

Srivathsan Nadadhur of ''OTTplay'' gave 3/5 stars and wrote "''Extra Ordinary Man'' is an irreverent, hilarious ode to cinema. Vakkantham Vamsi chooses an entertaining, ‘lightweight’ script for his second directorial, playing to the strengths of his capable cast." Paul Nicodemus of ''The Times of India'' gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Extra Ordinary Man could have been more impactful had it maintained the energy, characterisation, and vibe from the first half."

''NTV'' gave 2/5 stars and wrote "An ordinary routine film in pursuit of becoming Extra Ordinary became silly and pointless." Raghu Bandi of ''The Indian Express'' gave 1.5/5 stars and wrote "Vakkantham Vamsi’s writing is poor, illogical and hardly entertains. His direction is equally lackluster."

Neeshita Nyayapati of ''Hindustan Times'' called it "most ridiculous film of 2023" and wrote "Director Vakkantham Vamsi’s Nithiin and Sreeleela-starrer almost seems to spoof everything that’s laughable about commercial cinema." BVS Prakash of ''Deccan Chronicle'' wrote "After disasters like ''Maestro'' and ''Macherla Niyojakavargam'', young actor Nithin has again chosen a lackluster plot ‘Extra’ Ordinary Man which falls flat on its face. It neither boasts of a novel plot nor has an interesting narration."

Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of '' The Hindu'' wrote the film "is sometimes smart, sometimes silly and overstretched, but ensures plenty of laughs". Ram Venkat Srikar of ''Film Companion'' wrote "Extra Ordinary Man is a film that works on a writing level more than its final form. The ideas are so much fun, and you can totally see what the film could have been."

References

External links

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{{Portal bar, India, Film
2020s Telugu-language films
Films scored by Harris Jayaraj
Indian action comedy films