Raja (Navdeep) is a conman and Rani (not a woman) is his associate; both of them make their livelihood by robbing cars. Jaanu (Ritu Bharmecha), a school teacher, falls for him and he resolves for the one last time to do a big fat burglary before settling down, And for that, he gets into a deal with a group, which imports illegal arms in the country. On the other hand, ACP Yadav (Srihari) has entrusted him the job of nabbing criminals small and big. He is now in a conflict. How he wriggles out of the situation forms the rest of the story.
While scenes on Raja work as a story, they generally look silly. ACP Yadav (Srihari) whose anger and power is likened to a Potharaju or a man covered in turmeric and his eyes darkened and accentuated with black paint to look powerful and scary, delegates all the work to a small time thief. In one scene, with his heavy personality, he runs like Mahesh Babu in Pokiri and makes a spectacle of himself. While the scenes on Rani (Satyam Rajesh) work as fun character asides, he is painfully short-changed on story. Also, the love story between Raja and Jaanu doesn’t exist on any meaningful level. Initially, Jaanu is shown as enjoying the stolen gifts and free meals from Raja but when caught in a tight situation, she behaves like morality personified. Their romance is one of the most lacklustre ones we’ve seen in years. Ritu looks cute but her character is incomprehensible. She mostly poses, smiles, sulks and sometimes enjoys being around with her female companion.
Navdeep is all charm and charisma but it is sad to see him get desperate and sign films that cry for mediocrity. Srihari and Navdeep get some good moments initially but these moments don’t add up to anything. The director services a script that is half-baked and outdated. The villains in the film are all huge and terrible-looking. In comparison, the hero appears dwarfed and we got to buy this story that a thief content stealing cars and changing number plates suddenly graduates to busting a racket of fake swamis and an international mafia. Amidst all this, he reveals his soft side by playing Robin Hood and treating a kid in the hospital with all the money he has stolen.
A boring movie, it is now a tough task for the buyer to bring collections for the film and live up to the title. If you’re looking at passively spend two and a half hours at the cinema amidst disjointed scenes, stale jokes and over dramatic performances, Vasool Raja is for you.
Cast: Navdeep, Ritu Barmecha
Direction: Karthikeya Gopala Krishna
Music: Chinni Charan
Plot: A thug in love is embroiled in a complicated deal
Bottomline: Don’t fall prey to this ‘Vasool’ Raja
