Rating: 3.25/5
Banner: Parameshwara Art Productions
Cast: Jr NTR, Kajal Agarwal, Mukesh Rishi, Navdeep, Kelly Dorjee, Brahmanandam, Nasser, M S Narayana and others
Music: Thaman
Cinematographer: K V Guhan
Dialogues: Sreenu Vaitla, Kona Venkat
Story: Kona Venkat, Gopi Mohan
Editor: M R Varma
Screenplay, direction: Sreenu Vaitla
Producer: Bandla Ganesh
Release date: 05/04/2013
It has been quite a while since Junior NTR has scored a hit and this time he has teamed up with Sreenu Vaitla for an entertaining venture. Has it been good enough to get him a hit? Let us see
Story
Sadhu Bhai (Kelly Dorjee) is a big don living abroad and he is using his power to create terror and anarchy in India. But soon, he starts getting competition from one person called Baadshah (Jr NTR).
Baadshah’s father Dhanraj (Mukesh Rishi) has a casino in Macau which is eyed by Sadhu but Baadshah hatches a plan and starts creating trouble for Sadhu Bhai.
At the same time, he also makes another plan, goes to Italy and catches the attention of Janaki (Kajal). Soon, Baadshah and Janaki fall in love but she doesn’t know his identity. Who is Janaki? Why did Baadshah go for her? Does he eliminate Sadhu Bhai? All this forms the rest of the story.
Performances:
Jr NTR is back with a bang. He danced with enormous fire and ‘Kasi’ and the energy levels in his performance were also quite high. Some of his dialogues will create a flutter among his fans.
Kajal Agarwal was there to give the visual feast and some tender moments. Role-wise there is nothing much for her but she made her presence felt wherever possible.
Brahmanandam is the one to watch out for. In fact, the entire film takes a different turn as soon as he arrives and his versatility and expressions are entirely hilarious.
Kelly Dorjee carried out his role as required, Mukesh Rishi was good and made his presence felt, Navdeep proved well with his villainy looks, M S Narayana gave his share of humor as Revenge Nageshwara Rao but didn’t work as per expectations, Vennela Kishore was apt and brought some laughs, Nasser was natural and exhibited different angle in him dancing like Kamal Hasan, Siddharth was very brief, Meenakshi Dixit is sizzling hot in a song, Suhasini was standard as mother. The rest of the artists were there to fill the screen and added good value to the film.
On a whole Kona Venkat and Gopi Mohan delivered a very good comedy plot to stir laughs.
Highlights
- Second half
- Brahmanandam
- Comedy
- N T Rama Rao’s song medley
Drawbacks
- First half
- Routine plot
Analysis:
From the day the film was announced, the expectations were set high because it was bringing a crazy combination of Jr NTR and Sreenu Vaitla. At the same time, there was also some doubt because Vaitla is known for a formula comedy plot and repetitiveness might come in. With the kind of budget that went into this film, another challenge was there to get the output in the maximum.
But despite all these odds and challenges, it can be said that the film will come out with good results. Vaitla is one director who is not a good balancer. He cannot depict action, sentiment, romance, comedy with the same depth and impact. But at the same time, his forte is comedy and he knows how to extract the best from his team and deliver it with full gusto to the audience. This is the main reason why ‘Baadshah’ works.
There is the Jr NTR factor no doubt but the episodes like Dream Machine, Justice Chowdary, the Ladies dance for Senior NTR songs are what the authentic Telugu family audience looks for. In fact, the Sr NTR songs bit is not on par with Antyakshari scene of Gabbar Singh as predicted. And Vaitla has delivered it in a platter. Due credit must be given to NTR for the way he merged into his character and it was clear that he was hungry to prove a point.
But Brahmanandam proved to be the hero of the movie with his comedy as Padmanabha Simha.
As such, the film takes off on a monotonous note and there seemed to be an issue with the coloring as it appeared dull and few shades were pale. The regular scenes and the interval bang were all predictable. But the total mood gets elevated in the second half and it is a roller coaster ride of laughter in many places. If only Vaitla can start working on improvising the action, drama episodes then he will be on his way to give Tollywood’s number 1 blockbuster.
It's in routine Srinu Vaitla style but worked well with laughs again.
Bottomline: This will be a ‘Baadshah’ at the box office
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
