Pushpa movie

Sukumar is a smart filmmaker. He usually centres his movies on little ideas that keep getting grander and grander with each passing scene. In Rangasthalam (2018), he tackled casteism in conservative and liberal circles, and in his latest directorial venture, he chases after elitism by questioning the role of identity that plays in our society. The eponymous protagonist (portrayed by Allu Arjun) is born to an unwed woman, so he’s never treated as an equal by his half-siblings who are much older and richer than him. Pushpa and his mother, hence, lack class privilege, and their attempts to gain a footing in their small town are thwarted. If the film had been entirely about this thorny issue, the narrative would have taken a different turn. He wouldn’t have become a red sandalwood smuggler in the first place. He’d have simply tortured his half-siblings to accept him into their fold by showering love upon them, or by making them pay a heavy price for humiliating him. But this is not that story and there’s absolutely no need to worry about the reunion of siblings for now. The second part of Pushpa will take care of that. In legal and moral terms, Pushpa is a bad egg. I say morally also to emphasise the fact that he doesn’t share his wealth with everybody. He doesn’t dip his fingers into others’ pies. At the same time, however, he’s not somebody whom you might see as a do-gooder. In a scene where he has a conversation with a police officer, he tells him that they’re all fighting ...