Movie: Rough
Rating: 2/5
Banner: Sridevi Entertainments
Cast: Aadi, Rakul Preet Singh, Srihari, Raghu Babu, Siva Reddy, Tanikella Bharani and Others
Dialogues: Maradhuri Raja
Music: Mani Sharma
Cinematography: K. K. Senthil Kumar & S Arun Kumar
Editor: Marthand K Venkatesh
Producer: M. Abhilash
Story, Screenplay and Direction: C. H. Subba Reddy
Release Date: November 28th, 2014
Aadi's career took off smoothly with Prema Kavali and Lovely. But after that he had three releases Sukumarudu, Pyar Mein Padipoyane and Gaalipatam. Incidentally, all three were box-office duds. Now, Aadi has changed his genre from romantic films to action films and is trying to evolve into a full-fledged mass hero. With six-pack body and punch dialogues, Aadi has tried to emerge as a rough and tough hero. Let’s see if he succeeds in his attempt…
Story:
Chandu (Aadi) falls in love with Nandini (Rakul) thanks to her sweet and caring nature. But instead of confessing his love to Nandini, he tells her brother Siddharth (Srihari) about it and throws a challenge that he would make her fall for him. He plays a double game by telling Siddharth that Nandini had fallen for him and meanwhile he becomes good friends with Nandini. As the story progresses, Siddharth gets to know that Chandu is a murderer and that he had been to jail in his childhood.
Artistes’ Performances:
Aadi has worked real hard to have an image makeover and emerge into an action hero. Though he has developed six packs, mass dialogues and heavy-duty fight sequences do not suit his body type. In fact, dialogues like ‘samudram lonchi senkhalu kaadura… sevaalu lestayi’ don’t go with his image and one ends up feeling if Aadi’s decision to go for an image make-over was a bit early. There seems to be enough time for him to try his luck at action films, but lover boy image suits him fine for now.
Though Rakul Preet Singh signed the film prior to her success, her current popularity will surely help her and the film.
On the other hand, the characterization of late Srihari is really bad. One cannot decipher if the director wanted to make a villain out of him or a comedian out of him.
Raghu Babu’s comedy goes overboard as always. Had another comedian been taken in place of Siva Reddy, the character would have worked out better.
Technical Excellence:
Melody Brahma Manisarma’s songs are not catchy, but the background is really good. Senthil’s cinematography especially in action scenes is a major highlight. Though the film is full of punch dialogues, none of them are noteworthy.
In fact director Subbareddy uses the six fights and six songs template that has been long discarded all over again. Already, there is no depth to the story and the narration is no good either.
Wonder how he forgot that one cannot draw audiences by making a movie full of fights. Barring build-up shots and action scenes, Subbareddy doesn’t seem to have concentrated on anything in particular.
Highlights:
- Rakul Preet Singh
Drawbacks:
- Story without depth
- Uninteresting narration
- Second half
Analysis:
Barring dialogues such as “laagi kodite antettu egiri padatadandi…” , the story barely has any exciting points.
It is but natural for every hero to want to do larger than life character at least once in his career. So, in the film that Aadi did to fulfill his desire, there are six songs and six fights. And in between all these, there is very thin story line.
The story progresses with sister sentiment for hero and brother sentiment for heroine. Somewhere along the line, the inevitable clash between the heroine’s brother and hero happens.
But had the team pondered over questions like didn’t such films come before, will they still like such stories and does the film have paisa vasool elements, then the story would not have become a feature film.
There is absolutely no reason as to why one must go and watch this film in a theatre after buying the ticket. For starters, there is no story, so the narration is nothing much to write about. Also, there are too many fights and the songs are boring. To add to all this, the hero does not suit the story. So, when a film has so many minus points, how will it become a hit?
At a time when heroes like Gopichand have given up on action genre and are trying out romantic comedies, wonder why Aadi chose to do such a film. Sometimes, it is not necessary to go through a situation personally. Other’s experiences can be valuable lessons.
Barring audiences who don’t mind watching an overdose of fights, few jokes, two build-up songs, one beautiful heroine; Rough is not for the ordinary viewer.
Since the makers have shown what the film has on offer in the trailers and in the posters, if one ventures into theatres hoping to find something new, then isn’t that at their own risk?
Bottomline: Rough work!
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
