lalith-50982

This is one of those movies where you realize something is wrong within the first ten minutes. The dialogues feel as if they're straight out of a soap opera your grandmother might watch, and the screenplay comes across as both dull and rushed. The heroine's character is particularly irritating-her constant storytelling throughout the film makes you question what the writers were thinking.

Despite boasting a number of talented senior actors, none are able to salvage the movie. The hero appears clueless and adds nothing to elevate the scenes, making his presence almost redundant. The director, who previously worked as an assistant on "Prathi Roju Pandage" (a film that succeeded with its quirky comedy, coherent plot, and sharp dialogues), seems to have missed the mark completely here. It's clear that neither the director nor the makers have learned anything from their earlier experiences.

The film features several directors in cameo roles, presumably to help drive the story forward, but their efforts fall flat due to lackluster and uninspired dialogues. I can only give this movie one star, and that's purely because of the dance sequences. Suhas genuinely tries to reinvent himself, and the choreography is impressive, serving as the only true highlight in an otherwise disappointing film.

The Hitman" presents itself as a gripping tale of passion and intrigue, yet beneath its sleek cinematography and intoxicating performances lies a narrative that subtly distorts morality. It constructs a world where love and loyalty become convenient justifications for deception and murder, asking the audience to sympathize with characters whose actions, when stripped of their romantic veneer, are undeniably ruthless. The film does not simply portray crime; it weaves it into the fabric of desire, masking betrayal and violence with the scent of devotion. While its storytelling is undeniably engaging, there's an underlying question that lingers-does the film challenge its characters' moral corruption, or does it romanticize it? This duality is what makes The Hitman both compelling and deeply unsettling.

This tonal shift is particularly striking when considering that the director, Richard Linklater, is best known for films like Before Sunrise, where romance was built on emotional depth and intellectual connection rather than life-or-death stakes. In Before Sunrise, love was portrayed as something pure-two strangers connecting through conversation, drawn to each other not by manipulation or survival, but by a genuine meeting of minds and souls. There, Linklater celebrated love as an organic, deeply human experience. With The Hitman, however, that notion is turned on its head; love becomes a transactional, almost predatory force, tangled in deceit and self-interest. The contrast is jarring, raising the question of whether Linklater is experimenting with a new vision of love or critiquing the way passion is often exploited in crime narratives.

Despite this shift, Linklater's signature storytelling remains intact. His ability to craft naturalistic dialogue and develop compelling characters is evident, even when those characters operate in a far darker moral landscape. The film's pacing and tension mirror the same attention to human interaction that made Before Sunrise so captivating-only here, those interactions are laced with ulterior motives and dangerous consequences. This departure from his earlier works does not diminish his skill as a filmmaker, but it does challenge the audience to reconsider what love and loyalty mean when viewed through a lens of crime and survival. Whether The Hitman is a bold reinvention or a troubling departure from Linklater's ideals is up for debate, but one thing is certain: it forces us to question the narratives we are willing to accept under the guise of romance.