Our hero is Shiva (Mahesh Babu), who is not an orphan, not a billionaire, and never ever dresses up as a bat. He's a low-ranking officer in the Intelligence Bureau, assigned to a wiretapping unit, but he has developed software which enable shim to tap into and filter through every phone and computer system in the city, enabling him to stop crimes before they happen, rescue kidnapped children, prevent suicides, and generally fight evil wherever he can. Because this is a movie, we are supposed to pretend that this is a good thing rather than a horrifying invasion of privacy and subversion of due process; Shiva is generally a good guy, but this is technology that could easily be used for evil - "used for evil" is pretty much the default, even. And while he doesn't wear a cape, he does have his own theme song!
(Fun fact - the theme song includes a line about how he's so cool he doesn't need his own theme song. Sure, Jan.)
Shiva is also involved in one of the weirdest romantic subplots that I have ever seen. Shalini (Rakul Preet Singh) is a gifted medical student who accidentally watched four hours of porn and now finds she can't concentrate on her studies. Her plan, as she explains to a college friend, is to find a cute guy and "try that" so she can clear her head and get back to work. Because Shalini uses the word "help" during the phone conversation, Shiva gets an alert, listens in, and proceeds to stalk her for nearly a month, and when she angrily confronts him , he tells her he's there to help her with her concentration problem, and that is that! It's never made clear exactly what Shiva's intentions are; he doesn't make any speeches about trying to protect her honor or anything, but while they describe themselves as "friends with benefits," nobody ever gets any "benefits." And then not five minutes later they sing a song about how they're in love forever.
(Also sexy mimes.)
Shiva is hunting a serial killer, Bhairav (Bharath) and through a combination of genuinely clever detective work, dumb luck, and horrifying violations of privacy and due process, he quickly discovers the villain's origin story; Bhairav was born in a cemetery during a funeral, and can only feel joy when he hears other people weeping. As a child he started killing people in order to cause more funerals, and after the villagers burned down his family home he hid and kept killing people until the village was abandoned. While he doesn't have a cool name, Bhairav is basically a supervillain; he's got the origin story, a goofy looking zipper mask that he wears once and then immediately discards, and a lair of sorts at the amusement park where his brother works as a security guard. And like the modern Joker, his superpower is murder; he can kill minor characters pretty much with impunity, but has much less success with major characters who are not named Jason Todd.
Bhairav is so good at murder, in fact, that the film slowly transitions from "street-level vigilante movie" to "improbable disaster movie" without realizing it. And while even giant runaway boulders can be defeated through the power of illegal wiretapping, Shiva can't save people from the hospital attack Bhairav has planned until he figures out which hospital is being attacked, and a captive Bhairav isn't talking . . .
Spyder requires a bit more suspension of disbelief than the average Batman movie does, but there are some benefits. While Shiva and Shalini have an incredibly weird relationship, they are an engaging couple, and the film just treats Shalini as a girl with a very healthy sex-drive rather than trying to shame her. The action scenes are sufficiently big and improbable. The songs are fun, and provide the opportunity to watch a costume designer slowly lose her grip on reality. Just be prepared for strange.
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