Agent (film)

Agent is an 2023 Indian Telugu-language action spy film directed by Surender Reddy, written by Vakkantham Vamsi and produced by Anil Sunkara and Rambrahmam Sunkara under AK Entertainments. The film stars Mammootty, Akhil Akkineni, Dino Morea, Sakshi Vaidya and Vikramjeet Virk. The film marks the debut of Vaidya and Morea in Telugu cinema.

The film was announced in September 2020. Filming took place in Hyderabad, Budapest, Visakhapatnam and Manali. The release was deferred multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic and production delays.

Agent was released on 28 April 2023 and received mixed to negative reviews from critics. The film became a commercial disappointment at the box office, which prompted producer Anil Sunkara and Akhil Akkineni to apologize, accepting that the production commenced without a bound script.

Plot
RAW chief Col. Mahadev alias "The Devil" gets interrogated about orchestrating an impossible mission to kill two terrorists. He reveals that the two terrorists were working under a private terror organization called "The Syndicate", which is headed by Central Minister Jai Kishan and "The God".

Meanwhile, Ramakrishna "Ricky" alias "Wild Saala", an aspiring youngster, wants to become a RAW agent despite many failed attempts. After seeing his capability, Mahadev assigns Ricky on a mission to disguise himself as a rookie to capture "The God". It is revealed that "The God" is actually Dharma, a former RAW agent, who went rogue after Mahadev forced him to kill his girlfriend. Dharma now plans to spread a deadly virus dubbed "Super Cells". During a shootout with Mahadev, the device containing the virus is damaged and leads to a technical problem.

Ricky kills Jai Kishan in a shootout at the harbour and heads to Kashmir to learn about Dharma's other handler of the Syndicate, but the police arrests him, and Mahadev denies him as a RAW agent. Shortly after doing so, Ricky escapes from custody with Dharma's help. It is later revealed that Ricky's arrest was a ruse planned by both Ricky and Mahadev to learn about Dharma's operations.

Meanwhile, the device containing the virus is fixed, and a meeting is arranged to sell the device to the highest bidder, which Mahadev learns about this from Ricky and assigns him to retrieve a copy of the device, which also consists the names and identities of all active RAW agents. Dharma finds out that Ricky is copying the device, upon which Dharma confronts Mahadev and forces him to shoot himself or Dharma would spread the virus through missiles.

In the post credits scene, Mahadev tells Ricky to shoot him, which he reluctantly does. Ricky tracks down Dharma and kills him, whilst also stopping the missiles from releasing the virus in the country. Afterwards, Ricky heads on a new mission dubbed "Rabbit Fire".

Development
The film was announced by Akhil Akkineni in September 2020, tentatively titled Akhil 5, with Surender Reddy as the director. It was officially launched on Akkineni's birthday in April 2021, revealing the title and posters. A pooja ceremony was held on the launch day.

Casting
Akkineni's role as a spy was reportedly inspired by the character of Jason Bourne from the American film series Bourne. Akkineni bulked up his body for the role. In December 2020, model Sakshi Vaidya was confirmed as the female lead. In March 2021, Mohanlal was approached for the role of a military officer. Subsequently, Upendra was also considered, but the role was ultimately signed by Mammootty, whose casting was confirmed in June 2021. It also marks the collaboration between Mammootty, Akkineni and Surender Reddy. Dino Morea was cast as the main antagonist, who plays a rogue agent.

Filming
Filming began in July 2021 in Hyderabad, India. Mammootty joined the production in October 2021 in Budapest and completed filming his portions. In March 2022, sequences featuring Akkineni were shot in Hyderabad Metro. The following month, the production moved to Visakhapatnam and shot a few actions episodes and a song at the Visakhapatnam Port. In April 2022, the production moved to Manali, Himachal Pradesh to shoot action sequences featuring Akkineni and others, under the choreographer of Vijay Master. As of May 2022, about 50–60% of the production has been completed due to delays in production, thus missing the August 2022 release.

Music
Earlier, Thaman S was chosen as the composer of the film's score and soundtrack. Later, in September 2021, he had been replaced by Tamil musical duo Hiphop Tamizha,  marking their second collaboration with Surender Reddy after Dhruva (2016). The music rights of the film are owned by Lahari Music and T Series.

The first single titled "Malli Malli" was released on 22 February 2023, and it samples the bassline instrumental of the 2015 song "Save Dat Money" by American rappers Lil Dicky, Fetty Wap, and Rich Homie Quan. The second single titled "Endhe Endhe" was released on 24 March 2023. The third single titled "Rama Krishna" was released on 13 April 2023. The fourth single titled "Wild Saala" was released on 25 April 2023.

Theatrical
Agent was released on 28 April 2023. Initially, the film was initially scheduled for a release on 24 December 2021, but the film's production was heavily delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Later, the film was scheduled to release on 12 August 2022 but was delayed again due to production delays and Akkineni's injuries. The film was then planned for a January 2023 release, coinciding with Makara Sankranti before being postponed to the current date. The film is set to release in Telugu along with the dubbed versions in Malayalam. It was previously set to be release in five languages, but later it was set only to release the film in Telugu and Malayalam languages.

Home media
TBA

Reception
Agent received negative reviews from critics with praise for acting and action sequences, but criticized its script, soundtrack and VFX.

Critical reception
Srivathsan Nadadhur of OTTplay gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Agent is a largely engaging spy thriller with a sharp screenplay and fabulous action choreography filmed on a wide canvas. Despite its follies, Surender Reddy ensures a paisa vasool experience." 123Telugu gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Agent is a mediocre spy thriller. Akhil’s performance and a few action sequences are a boon to the film. The poor screenplay in the second half, some over-the-top scenes and a silly climax portion make one feel boredom."

Neeshita Nyayapati of The Times of India rated the film 2/5 stars and wrote "Agent is a spy thriller that commits the blasphemy of being boring. Akhil’s ‘wild’ act might save the country but it's not enough to save the film." Latha Srinivasan of India Today gave 2/5 stars and wrote "There is hardly a semblance of a plausible story in Agent and what is truly wild is that the writer and director thought this would make a good film."

Raghu Bandi of The Indian Express gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Vakkantham Vamshi’s story follows a typical action film pattern and sticks to that. Somewhere between a huge Surender Reddy film and Akhil Akkineni film, Agent falters in truly belonging to either zone and ends up as an average action film." Abhilasha Cherukuri of Cinema Express gave 1.5/5 stars and wrote "There is a throwaway line comparing logic with magic somewhere in Agent, and the film falls short on both counts, leaving its viewer with a tedious and thoroughly unmemorable experience."

Bhuvanesh Chandar of The Hindu wrote "Surender Reddy’s ‘Agent,’ starring Akhil Akkineni and Mammootty, has a generic story that follows an annoying lead character who comes across as a man-child trying to live out his childhood spy fantasies." Ram Venkat Srikar of Film Companion wrote "Agent is a film in which the efforts of the team and resources pooled to realise the filmmaker's vision are evident. A couple of brief action sequences are the only respite in this colossal, hackneyed mess of a film that falls short of creativity and wildness."