Lenin review: Akhil Akkineni's film confuses a good story with a good movie

Lenin movie review: Akhil Akkineni's Lenin sets up a rural mystery around a prison returnee in Srirampuram. Its ambition and strong moments are undercut by weak character groundwork and shock-driven twists.

In Short

• Akhil Akkineni's most ambitious role is let down by an uneven screenplay
• An intriguing premise let down by shock-driven twists and weak emotional payoffs.
• Bhagyashri Borse stands out with a confident and natural performance

There comes a point in every romantic hero's career when charm stops being enough. The search begins for a film that can bridge the gap to the 'mass' audience. On paper, Lenin looks like exactly that opportunity for Akhil Akkineni. A rural backdrop, emotionally charged characters, mythological undertones and enough twists to promise a larger-than-life entertainer. It has all the ingredients of a career-defining film. Unfortunately, it never learns how to put them together.

Writer-director Murali Kishor Abburu builds an intriguing world in Srirampuram, a village whose annual Bharatham Jatara and the legend of Draupadi become central to the mystery surrounding Lenin (Akhil Akkineni). The film opens with the protagonist returning from prison to find that many of his own villagers want him dead. It is an effective hook, and as the narrative travels back to 1976 to unpack his origins and relationships, Lenin initially feels like a grounded rural drama with genuine promise.

The problem is not a lack of ideas but the inability to organically connect them. The first half, despite leaning heavily on familiar tropes, works in parts because the world and its characters generate enough curiosity to keep you invested. Akhil takes a while to settle into the role and, although he eventually finds his rhythm, his Chittoor accent remains inconsistent throughout.

Bhagyashri Borse, meanwhile, is one of the film's biggest strengths, delivering a confident and natural performance. While the songs and several meandering moments slow the narrative considerably, the mystery surrounding the village and its people sustains the intrigue. A well-executed interval block even briefly convinces you that the film is finally about to pull all its scattered ideas together.

As the second half unfolds, Lenin falls into a familiar trap that has plagued several recent rural dramas. The screenplay begins piling on twists that exist more to shock than to serve the story. Rather than feeling like natural consequences of the narrative, they come across as carefully planted surprises, making their impact fleeting instead of memorable.

This issue extends to the characters. Shivaji's role is introduced with considerable intrigue, hinting at a layered character with conflicting motivations. But as the story progresses, he gradually slips into the same mould that has defined several of his recent performances, making the character feel disappointingly familiar. The same pattern repeats across much of the supporting cast. Characters are introduced with complexity but eventually take predictable turns that flatten their potential.

Some of those turns are particularly difficult to accept. Eeshwari Rao's village head undergoes a dramatic shift in the climax with little emotional or narrative groundwork. Shivaji's character follows a similarly abrupt trajectory. Both transformations are staged as major reveals, but because the motivations behind them are never convincingly developed, they feel less like genuine character evolution and more like screenplay devices designed to manufacture surprise.

That lack of foundation also hurts the film's emotional core. The romance between Lenin and Bharathi begins awkwardly and, although it develops into something more convincing later, the relationship never acquires the depth needed for its emotional moments to truly resonate.

Lenin's friendship with Vasanth, the village head's elder son, is meant to be the film's emotional backbone, carrying the same weight that Dharani and Suri's bond did in 'Dasara' or Deva and Varada's relationship in 'Salaar'. But those comparisons only expose what is missing. Where those films patiently built their friendships through shared moments and emotional beats, Lenin merely asks the audience to accept that the bond exists. Vasanth is present throughout the narrative, but the screenplay never invests enough time in establishing that relationship. As a result, several emotional moments arrive without the foundation needed to make them land.

The same problem affects the supporting characters. Praveen and Getup Srinu are clearly meant to occupy important places in Lenin's life, yet their relationships with him remain generic and underdeveloped. Praveen, in particular, is handed a major emotional scene towards the end, but the film has done little to establish why that moment should matter. Karthikeya Dev's young observer, tasked with monitoring Vasanth, is introduced with intrigue before disappearing into the background just as abruptly. These shortcomings are occasionally masked by S. Thaman's score, which works hard to elevate key moments. But the familiarity of several themes, echoing his earlier compositions, often becomes distracting rather than immersive.

Yet Lenin occasionally reminds you of the film it could have been if executed well. A standout scene featuring Shivaji, where he declares that one must uphold righteousness even when righteousness itself loses its way, is among the film's finest moments. The writing, performance and staging come together seamlessly, proving that ambition was never the film's problem, execution was.

Akhil deserves credit for taking on the most demanding role of his career and delivering one of his better performances. Bhagyashri Borse complements him with ease, making the pair one of the film's biggest positives. Murali Kishor Abburu also deserves appreciation for attempting a story that is more ambitious than the average commercial entertainer. But ambition alone cannot carry a film. It needs the discipline to shape ideas into drama, characters into people, and twists into emotional payoffs. Beneath its uneven screenplay lies the outline of a compelling rural drama, one with interesting characters, mythology and emotional possibilities. That version of the film occasionally surfaces in flashes, only to disappear beneath convenient writing and manufactured twists. In the end, the missed opportunities linger far longer than the moments that actually work.

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