Rating: 2/5
Banner: Annapurna Studios
Cast: Nagarjuna, Richa Gangopadhyay, Sonu Sood, Ashish Vidyarthi, Prasanna, Brahmanandam, M S Narayana, Zara, Kamna, Hamsa Nandini, Nathalia Kaur and others
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematographer: Sameer Reddy
Director: Veerabhadram
Producer: Nagarjuna
Release date: 25/10/2013
Nagarjuna who has been trying hard to score a hit has teamed up with the successful director Veerabhadram and the duo has attempted to come up with a mass entertainer. Were they successful, let us see.
Story
David (Ashish Vidyarthi) is a big don in Bankok and he runs a mafia empire. But trouble begins in Hyderabad when his men are chased and killed by a police officer (Prasanna). It is here that David sends his best man Bhai (Nag) to Hyderabad to eliminate the cop. Bhai starts his planning and in between he meets Radhika (Richa) who falls in love with him. The time comes for Bhai to kill the police officer but he comes across a shocking discovery. What is that discovery and how things take shape forms the rest of the story.
Performances
It is about time Nag starts focusing on roles that fit his image and age. He was stylish at most places but his energy levels were weak and indifferent. Not sure why he is smiling in most of the scenes.
Richa Gangopadhyay was literally nonexistent. She was brought to fill the slot of heroine and songs. Apart from her standard two expressions, there is nothing much. A wise decision she made by taking a break from acting.
Ashish Vidyarthi did justice to his role. Sonu Sood was wasted. Same with the case of Brahmanandam, M S Narayana and other experienced cast. Zara was blank, Kamna gave a blink and miss appearance, Nathalia was smoking hot. Nagineedu was natural, Jayaprakash Reddy was brief. Others didn’t have much scope.
Highlights
- Production values
Drawbacks
- Disjointed screenplay
- Zero emotional depth
- Tasteless romance track
- Stale comedy
Analysis
Generally, mass entertainers come with a certain set of requirements like an energetic hero, some strong punch dialogues, entertaining romance and humorous comedy track with satire and fun. Without this, nothing works. For some reason, the director was unable to blend these requirements rightly and as a result, the film fell flat on its face. His thought process on the storyboard was neat but by the time he got it to conceive in a cinema format, he was totally directionless.
Most of the scenes didn’t have any continuation or continuity between them. So it was like a failed experimental cocktail. The other mistake he did was cramming all possible comedians of Tollywood. What is the use when you can’t justify their characters. Even the presence of Brahmi and MS Narayana were not utilized properly. The conflict points were totally spineless and the emotional juice was outright dry.
The film takes off with some promising locales, hot foreign girls and good premises but Nag gives a scare with his weird hairdo like a Red Indian Chief. From thereon, the story starts dipping rapidly and the twist in the tale before the interval bang was extremely disappointing. It was a relief to see the word ‘interval’ onscreen. The second half again goes with the same morose flavor and it looked as if the main target was to complete the two hour plus duration with anything that comes to mind rather than streamlining it with a purpose.
As someone who made two notable hits with the right entertainment formula, this is an absolute shocker from the director. And it is also embarrassing to see the experienced Nag unable to figure out that the movie was heading straight into a plunging doom. That way, despite having all resources and equipment, the team could not deliver what could have been a potential big hit.
Bottomline: Bye Bye
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
