You don't go to Nagarjuna's movie expecting a new storyline, a narrative style and direction.
You go to enjoy yourself, have fun, listen to some funky dialogues, watch some songs, some action sequences and come out with a smile on your face. Ragada meets this standard of expectation right from the word go as our cool dude in aviator glasses with a wry smile strides into the city speaking Cuddapah lingo to set right the various squabbling gangs. Or so you surmise, seeing the fight sequences and the dialogues.
In reality, the film is like a rabbit hole with many doors that keep opening one after the other to draw you into the drama. And there is a drama within a drama.
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In the city, there are two gangs. While one ganglord has moved into the political arena, the other wannabe gang is stuck in the rut of fisticuffs, swordfights and spray of gunfire. In this framework, our hero steps in with style.
Nagarjuna is Satya Reddy who believes in treating the men with a candy or a box in the ears depending on how they approach him. For him, the women fall into two categories: chocolate or a bullet.
With such a simple philosophy, you cannot go greatly wrong. Once in the city, he wants to make money in real quick time. He teaches the city-slickers a thing or two about gang warfare, rivalry and psychology as he goes about the job of mopping up money. Why he wants to make the money, remains a puzzle till the intermission. Post-interval, there is a twist in the tale that settles a few pending doubts about the past of the characters.
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The director doesn't drill the flashback like a long painful drudgery; instead he shows it like a flash and moves on with the story. If he digresses, it is in the dance sequences with the heroines in scenic locations across the world.
The song and dance numbers break the narrative flow of the story, but what the heck, you have come to watch Nagarjuna's movie not some gritty Bruce Willis' movie.
Anushka and Priyamani have their share of screen presence which goes beyond the dance steps. Brahmanandam is deadpan laugh riot especially when he says he can win the Olympics of masculine beauty if there is any such thing while patting his bald patch.
The narrative style is brilliant which transforms a pedestrian revenge drama into an engrossing fare. It is the sheer presence of Nagarjuna, his style and mannerisms that make the movie engrossing fun.
The music is hummable fare in two songs.
The cinema is rated ‘A' and has sequences of violence and skin show.