It was a bad Friday with all the Telugu films that released having a poor turnout.
Can’t blame the crowd but can only feel jealous for their wise choice of staying away from this 112 minutes of mindless drama. If you were to be given prize money to pick the best of the worst scenes in the film, you’d be in a quandary.
There is always a creative liberty to play with logic but director Mahesh Surapaneni takes the cake for stretching it a bit further by winding up the story with an awards night where the heroine and supporting actor give those emotionally moving speeches which the audience fails to comprehend as to why the actors are in tears.
The first half of the film begins well, a rich and haughty on-screen villain Arjun (Nara Rohith) who wins awards in a row is shown as carrying his bad behavior to real life as well. His cruelty comes to an end when he meets with an accident and his saviour loses his limb. The guilt, the incident brings about an overnight transformation and he is not able to perform any more negative roles for the camera.
A well wisher suggests that his negativity will return only if he takes a break, identifies a personal enemy and seeks revenge on him or her. So off Arjun goes with his sidekicks to a village to play mind games with a childhood friend who hurt him when he was 10-years-old.
The girl, Sita (Namita Pramod), all grown up is introduced to us as having a green thumb; she is shown singing a song with a potted plant that holds plastic flowers in the nursery.
The auteur has fair amount of talent to weave a love story wherein the lovers are not aware of their feelings for each other. Imagine a movie star going back to his village after decades just to seek revenge for what happened in a classroom and also to regain his lost craft.
There is nothing more to the story in case you are seeking competence before and behind the camera. Namita Pramod who is probably one film old, is wasted. She is either dolled up in gawdy half sarees or satin night wear and gets into a weird fancy dress in what is made to look like a vintage song.
The hero, a product of nepotism and who started his career putting his hands in his pocket throughout in his debut film has still not gotten over it here too. Where is the acting? Unlike in Jyo Achyutananda where there was something to see and talk about, Naga Shaurya this time round competes with Rohith in showing weight.
When actors don’t put in effort to look good, don’t make intelligent choices, when the producer has no clue where the budget is going and when the director treats his first film as his 100th then one should begin treating the time and self with respect.
The film leaves you powerless and drained by the time you exit…
