It is tough to pull off an unapologetic protagonist in commercial cinema, one who makes no bones about his intentions and proffers no excuses for the ways of achieveing them, regardless of the collateral or the consequences. It has rarely been a problem in other languages, but telugu has always had an affinity for its heroes to remain squeaky clean and the odd misstep always had a convenient reason. The fear is simple, he would no longer be called a 'hero' and justifying that tag would involve considerable amount of acrobatics, particularly when promoting or selling the movie. A telugu hero had always had the unenviable task of shouldering a social image - on and off the screen - and any deviation from it incurred the wrath of all and sundry. The makers thus avoided the anti-hero role altogether for the fear of (unwarranted) blow back and therefore stuck to safe zones where he simply could do no wrong or his wrong was always for the right reasons. The occasional foray of the conventional telugu hero into the dark side had been more in comedic vein, who (like in the kabaddi game) quickly retreated to the socially acceptable stance after the (mis)deed is done. While other mainstream filmdoms, tamil in particular, had their lead actors walking in an out of moral safe zones (to great critical acclaim and wide audience reception), telugu had always remained a step behind, in a strange way, always appreciating the efforts of others but rarely accepting the transgressions of their own. Not any more... Allu Arjun's 'Pushpa' has surely broken through that morality barrier. No longer is a mainstream hero bound to (some imaginary) social contract that prevents him from accepting roles that dwell in seedier streets (or forests, in this case) and trade wares on the wrong side of the road. This is as much as a director's derring-do as it is of a mainstream hero's who cared little about anything but how interesting the character was and the results are explosive.

The main reason behind the colorfulness of that character is the backdrop. Until the (in)famous encounter that transpired in the honeymoon period of Chandrababu Naidu's reign (a nice touch in set decoration of hanging his photo on the wall in Fahad's police station) in the newly minted state that saw a loss of lives of more than a dozen "coolies" from the neighboring state accused of felling and transporting the red sandalwood stumps (fetching the state exchequer more than a few hundred crores in seized property much later), the extent and the brazenness of the entire operation (where the coolies fought back with sticks and stones grievously injuring the police party instead of simply abandoning the loot and running for their lives) remained under the radar of the mainstream news. And suddenly the whole state woke up to an encore act (after Veerappan) of the existence of an entire cartel that moved the bounty outside the borders of the country, sometimes with the consent and collusion with the checkpost officials, port authorities, and other law administration entities who are in the know. Pick any character in this thread - from production to distribution - the motivation is not the usual survival, but pure greed. And the protagonist makes his choice, when, literally at the crossroads, two paths diverge, one into the town and the other into the woods, he takes the one less traveled, where he finds himself in an entirely new world inhabited exclusively by wolves, and here again, makes a conscious choice of becoming a lion to lord over them. Unapologetic, through and through and all the way through. The conventional telugu hero had steadfastly remained on the right side of these nefarious activities all this time, and Allu and Sukumar choose the road less traveled. And what a wonderful choice it is! In a world full of villains, how should a hero rather be, a lesser villain who is a better human being or the better villain more equipped to deal with his world? The trite words "identifiable", "sympathetic", "relatable" etc that mean so much to commercial cinema do not find a place here. Another cliche comes in handy though, "hunt, or be hunted!"

The stellar technical qualities of the film aside, Arjun deserves a sound round of applause for transforming into Pushparaj, an uncouth, unsympathetic, wily individual who has absolutely no issue with putting a price on everything he cares about, including love. And Sukumar rightly populates this world with characters who only differ in degree. These are all cut from the same cloth, have the same motivation of profiting from a rare commodity, and have little in the way of compunction or compassion. It is pretty similar to Mario Puzo's world of the mafioso in "The Godfather", where it is the business that always calls the shots, and the only humanity that shines through is in choice of the killing, whether violent or compassionate . Sukumar's inspiration is unmistakably the new wave of tamil cinema - the Kumar Thyagarajan's, Mysskin's, Bala's, Vetrimaran's and their ilk - who build a colorful world first and then zoom in on the individual in that world, than go with the usual "ordinary caught in the extraordinary" template. Next in line for adulation, after the actor and the director, stands the director of photography, who squeezes the world of Pushpa into tight frames (what a delightful capture of the conversation between the lead pair in the van), opening up only in action pieces and quickly closing in in the aftermath, as though this is a world that conducts its business in hushed tones, away from the humdrum of the civilzed society. Excellent choice, that! The set design, the score (background and songs), the editing, each department tries for oneupmanship over the other and the collective result is one of great synergy. And another brave choice of ending the movie without the usual highs and bangs and climactic and cinematic flourishes. It ends just as it begins, Pushpa getting ready to take on another challenge!

Though the second part is teased as "The Rule of Pushpa", here's to hoping that just as "The Rise of Pushpa" is really "The descent of Pushpa", the next part is actually "The reign (of terror) of Pushpa". His fall should be even greater than this rise, because as history (and cinema) proves, the myth of the anti-hero is only as good as the inevitability and brutality of his death. That alone can justify the brave choices of Arjun and Sukumar for entering the world Pushpa in the first place.

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