Movie: Kick 2
Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: NTR Arts
Cast: Ravi Teja, Rakul Preet Singh, Brahmanandam, Tanikella Bharani, Rajpal Yadav, Ravi Kishan, Sanjay Mishra, Ashish Vidyarthi, Kovai Sarala, Posani Krishna Murali, Nora Fatehi and others
Story: Vakkantham Vamsi
Music: S.S.Thaman
Cinematography: Manoj Paramahamsa
Editing: Gautham Raju
Action: Ram-Laxman
Art: Narayana Reddy
Producer: Nandamuri Kalyan Ram
Screenplay and Direction: Surender Reddy
Release Date: August 21, 2015
Ravi Teja, the mass maharaja for Telugu audiences and Surender Reddy who has given the highly entertaining Race Gurram, come together once again after six years for Kick 2. Ravi Teja has mentioned in one of the interviews that Kick 2 will start the trend of franchise films in Telugu. Let’s see how the film’s come up…
Story:
In the first part of Kick, Ravi Teja was portrayed as a sort of Robin Hood who steals money for a right purpose and does everything in life for the sake of some ‘kick’. The sequel focuses on his son who is named after Robin Hood.
Robin (Ravi Teja), a doctor, comes down to India to settle his land issue in Hyderabad as some realtor has grabbed his land. While he is on that, he meets a beautiful writer Chaitra (Rakul) who is narrating some stories to a producer. Chaitra likes the attitude of Robin Hood and falls in love with him. Meanwhile, in Vilaspur, a village in Bihar, the villagers are looking for a God-like person who could rescue them from the atrocities of the local ruthless don Solomon Singh Thakur (Ravi Kishan).
One of their villagers sees Robin Hood beating a big rowdy over a small issue feels he is the god who they are looking for. How will he bring Robin Hood to their village and make him fight against the Thakur? What plan does the entire village hatch to bring him to their place?
Artistes’ Performances:
Ravi Teja looks lean to put it in short. Given that his new look is still debatable, let’s skip that for another day. As for his performance, he is his usual energetic self and like the first part, he carries the entire film on his shoulders. Of course, there are hordes of character artistes and villains which has become a norm these days, but Ravi Teja pulls off the film with his charisma.
Rakul Preet Singh is a good choice for Chaitra. She looks good dancing around in Europe and is equally at ease being a village belle in Vilaspur. Of course, she also adds the much-needed glamour to an otherwise drab second half.
Director Surender Reddy repeats his villain Ravi Kishen once again for the film and this time he plays Solomon Singh Thakur or ‘son of god’ as he calls himself. With blue lenses, he does look intimidating and he too carries off his part convincingly.
Jil villain Kabir, Tanikella Bharani, Raajpal Yadav, Sanjai Mishra and others are part of the ensemble cast. They all play their parts as per the requirements of the script.
Posani Krishnamurali has a blink and go cameo along with Kovai Sarala. And director Surendra Reddy too puts in a brief cameo in the hero’s introduction scene.
Technical Excellence:
The film’s music is by Thaman who comes up with an upbeat album overall. The first half has a couple of interesting songs and Ravi Teja and Rakul’s duet is hummable. The second half has situational songs and there is also an item number by Nora Fatehi.
Vakkantam Vamsi writes a story that is the usual ‘leave your brain at home’ sort of script that has all the elements of a mass film. Well, that said, the first half is entertaining, while the second half gets a bit stretched as he tries to establish the story with some lengthy scenes. Here, one feels that editor Gautam Raju should have been a little reckless and chopped them into shorter scenes.
Once again director Surender Reddy tries to make an entertainer that will cater to all audiences who love to laugh and get their ticket’s worth. Of course, he is successful to that end in the first half, but the second half kind of tries the patience of the audiences in places.
Highlights:
- Cinematography
- Thaman’s songs
- Some hilarious scenes in the first half
Drawbacks:
- Outdated story
- Lethargic screenplay
- Lack of entertainment post interval
- Lacking novelty factor in each aspect of the movie
- Lengthy runtime
- Bad climax
Analysis:
The reason why director Surender Reddy joined the league of top directors was because of his ability to blend entertainment into an action story seamlessly and package it with glossy technical values.
Both “Kick” and “Race Gurram” became blockbusters for this reason. But he seemed to have left his ammunition at home before entering on to the sets of “Kick 2” as the movie lacks good comedy and right action.
Major problem with the movie is the clichéd storyline written by Vakkantham Vamsi. The story is similar to the Mahesh Babu starrer “Khaleja” but this one has illogical scenes, poorly written characters, fill-in-the-gaps comedy.
Surender Reddy’s “Kick” had offered us good fun, and nice sentiments. The character of the Ravi Teja in the film was well developed – a kick seeking thief trying to fool the cops, all for a good cause. He takes up the cause and turns “hero” voluntarily. In this film, the hero has no personal “issue” to deal with, and he is made “hero” by others.
When Ravi Teja said he does anything for ‘kick’, it sounded well in the first part but when he mouths that he seeks only “comfort” but nothing else, the catch phrase doesn’t ring rightly. There lies the problem too.
Not only script is bad, narration by Surender Reddy is also not effective. Compared to the comedy we have seen in Kick and Race Gurram, this one is not that great. Yet, as astrologer Pandit Ravi Teja, Brahmanandam offers some good laughs.
First half is comparably better than the second half one thanks to some comedy.
Best part of the movie is pre-climax episode and the visuals filmed on the Vilaspur Railway station. A nice tribute to Sergio Leon’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), the look and visual frames were perfect in these episodes.
A better screenplay, better entertainment would have made some difference to this predictable story. All in all, Kick 2 is not half good as the original Kick.
Bottomline: Kick 2 lacks Kick
(Venkat can be reached [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
