STORY (What it was supposed to be?) -
A middle class father Rao Ramesh has 2 children, one is Kriti Kharbanda & the younger one is Ram Charan. Their financial status is such that Rao Ramesh can only afford to provide better education to only one kid & he chooses the son over daughter like every middle class families in India, vowing to make him a collector in the future. The good hearted perfect brother at that young age itself decides to sacrifice everything in life for his sister & makes it his goal to make her the collector while hiding all his sacrifices from his father. Now right after his sister writes her civil exam, she gets into trouble in the hands of the villain & how Ram Charan saves her while proving to the villains never to mess with his family is supposed to be the actual story.
STORY (What we're force fed..) -
Okay.. The initial minutes shows the childhood days of the hero & how he sacrifices for his sister to get her all the best things in life. After they're all grown up, we're introduced to Ram Charan who works as a stuntman in films in order to support his sister's education. He dresses up as a cop & fights some goons. Riya played by Rakul Preet Singh watches him fight & falls head over heels because for no reason she's obsessed with cops. (Don't try to remember Ileana D'Cruz in Phata Poster Nikla Hero). So she puts up his pic on facebook getting over 1 lakh likes which makes the hero search for her. When they meet, it's love at first sight for the hero too & he lies to her that he's an undercover cop. She goes on investigating privately busting crimes & calls Ram Charan for help. He goes to save her & in between kicks all the goons getting them arrested & the illegal crimes taken over to custody by cops who take credit for themselves. Sadly, all the illegal crimes they hit are run by the villain Arun Vijay. (No no please stop trying to remember Phata Poster Nikla Hero).
Anyways, the hero in order to save himself, makes everyone believe that there's a lookalike who is a cop. Problem solved because everybody will believe him right away, no questions asked. There's a lookalike then there's a lookalike, as simple as that. One thing leds to another, Ram Charan beats the hell out of Arun Vijay & puts him in a coma (such a new thing). BAM it's interval which means main villain will enter now who's going to be revealed as Arun Vijay's father who vows to destroy Ram Charan & his family. (No no don't try to remember all the Telugu masala films you've seen so far.) Anyways, the "not a cop" Ram Charan is given the mission to expose the main villain & solve this huge case all by himself. Awww... so sweet of Indian Police in fact intelligence bureau officer to let some stranger take over an entire mission while they sit back just because he's the hero. Oh wait! His sister is involved just to remind the audience that the director does know the actual story about how Ram Charan will do anything for his sister. After all that is the script.
Performances -
Ram Charan does exactly what he has been doing till now. Dances well, a bit more control over himself in emotional scenes, a bit more control over his comic timing but lesser impactful when it comes to punch dialogues. Rakul Preet Singh is sensuous in the songs & that's pretty much she's used for. Kriti Kharbanda is wasted as Ram's sister, she deserves better. Straight promotion to sister roles, feel very sad for Kriti. Rao Ramesh finds it cakewalk to play a father. Sampath Raj as the main villain has got yet another routine role but for a change he gets some comic moments. Arun Vijay as another villain looks menacing (he looked the same as in Yennai Arindhaal) but eventually he's wasted too. Nadia has an important role but not utilized. It was extremely sad to see Tisca Chopra in such a weak role getting slapped by Brahmanandam in the name of comedy. Her introduction scene was awesome but after that she was limited to getting slapped only. Brahmanandam as Suzuki Subramanyam & Ali as PK including Posani Krishna Murali don't evoke laughter as the scenes they get aren't funny. Brahmaji gets a role similar to what MS Narayana has played in Sreenu Vaitla's earlier films. If he was alive then he would've played this role.
CHIRANJEEVI is phenomenal. The MEGASTAR is the real deal. The audience went super mad watching him on screen & he provided the right dose of entertainment in his brief cameo. But then, the whole point of his special appearance is utterly pointless & is done as a last minute attempt to salvage the film.
Plusses -
1. MEGASTAR Chiranjeevi.
2. Choreography.
3. A bit of fun episodes here & there.
Minusses -
1. Mediocre Direction.
2. The 2nd half of the movie runs haywire. It keeps floating everywhere.
3. Failed comedy scenes in the 2nd half.
4. Routine script.
5. Repeating the formula used in Dookudu, Baadshah, Aagadu again.
- For instance, in Dookudu Brahmi does mono acting of simply showcasing his various expressions in various situations. Here, Ram Charan asks Brahmi to imagine himself to be a monkey & then gives him situations to act out same expressions. Brahmi making faces might be funny but it comes out as Shah Rukh's failed attempt to evoke laughter by making faces in Chennai Express.
- The cop angle... it's the most common thing in all those 3 films too. In Baadshah Jr. NTR will be an undercover cop but here Ram Charan acts as one.
- The routine, join the villains, be with them while fooling them throughout the film using Brahmanandam & others... too boring now.
6. Too much over the top.. 15 mins to deadline to save the dying father & also save the heroine who is held hostage in some other place while the villain plans to leave the country in just 30 mins. Stuntman calls the Megastar for help... Instead of bringing cops, Megastar arrives himself to single handedly beat everyone, save the damsel. But after the fight, the megastar asks the stuntman to go on a slow motion horse ride because "Fans praise Ram Charan to be a good horse rider". The main villain leaving the country in 30 mins can wait... It's India, traffic & all, villain ain't going nowhere even though the road he's travelling is completely empty.
My Rating - 2/5
Final Words - Only for that glimpse of Megastar after 6 years. Don't even dare to expect anything more.
Sreenu Vaitla ain't learning from his mistakes. Period.
