‘Radha’ is short for Radha Krishna (Sharwanand), a devotee of lord Krishna. It also refers to the leading lady, whom the hero calls ‘rabbit’. We’ll address that in a while.
As a child, Radha Krishna is more interested in listening to Bhagavad Gita sermons than playing with friends. Once, he’s saved in the nick of time from falling into a pit by a cop and he believes it was lord Krishna who came to protect him in the khaki avatar. So the boy dreams of growing up and becoming a cop.
In the portions where Sharwanand is in the police training academy, he’s like a guy on an overdose of energy pills, always game for gruelling routines. Soon after training, he’s itching to take on criminals but is posted to a zone with zero crime rate and a non-functional police station.
The film strolls along with a fair dose of humour and you wait to see what debut director Chandra Mohan has in store.
Our Radha Krishna will eventually have something challenging to do, but before that there’s room for romance. Radha (Lavanya Tripathi), in her first scene, is shown feeding carrots to rabbits. Much later there will be a song that goes ‘Rabbit pilla’. Yet another film reduces its leading lady to a glamorous accessory — act cute and occasionally show some mock anger.
Then, Radha Krishna is posted to the big, bad city and comes face to face with the murky side of politics. The prospect of a cop who is adept at sniffing out trouble and makes criminals read Bhagavad Gita in lock-ups cross paths with a powerful baddie is interesting. But when the inevitable crossing of paths happens, it lacks the fizz because there are no big reveals. The intended twists can be sensed a mile away. From the first frame, it’s a giveaway that Sujatha (Ravi Kishan) is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The so-called cat and mouse game between Sujatha and Radha Krishna too is underwhelming.
As Radha Krishna often says in this film, there is ‘material’. But it isn’t leveraged upon to make a truly smart and engrossing film. We get a cocktail of justice in public forum, brotherhood that cuts across religious barriers and a defiant cry for respect towards the police force. Had there been a watertight screenplay and an intriguing narrative, we would have had a gripping film. The only portion worth rooting for in the later half is Sapthagiri’s spoof on Nannaku Prematho .
Sharwanand is good and so is Lavanya Tripathi in her limited role. But they can’t salvage a half-hearted script.
Radha
Cast : Sharwanand, Lavanya Tripathi, Ravi Kishan
Direction : Chandra Mohan
Music : Radhan
