Racha movie review

There is a dialogue in the movie “Nuvve Nuvve”  where Tarun says that a father should expect the son to climb from the eleventh step, if the father himself has climbed ten steps. Sampath Nandi, the man who joined Posani Murali after Trivikram took the dialogue too seriously. He thinks Ram Charan will take off from where his father left the reins

First things first, there is nothing in Ram Charan that points towards a secure superstar future. Part of the lure of a superstar is, salvaging a downright bad film to a decent film. Ram Charan fails to salvage the movie. Period. Credit to him, that he actually agreed to act in Racha.

He must still be ruing the last 15 minutes of that movie ‘Orange’. It seems, he didn’t learn the lessons imparted to him by that movie. If the stories are to be believed, 3 crores were spent on the Bamboo fight sequence. From my side, I would put it down as an apocryphal story. If it is indeed true, there would be a reputation that would be precede Ram Charan from hereon and it would be that of a man who makes the producer splurge

On numerous occasions in the movie, we are reminded of the lineage of the hero. It gets to the nerves after sometime. The self-indulgence is unwarranted. The movie seems more like an experiment, an experiment to ascertain whether Ram Charan can carry the burden of a bad movie. The results are out to be seen. He can’t.

Coming to the movie itself, it refuses to move. The first half is spent on elevating the image of the protagonist and as is the norm, there is an interval bang. Flashback, peeling the layers of the story(?), mass song, and the final bang are all there. The problem is, they are all stuffed in the last half an hour of the movie. It is when you see movies like this, that you realise the importance of a good director and his capabilities. These kind of movies need a protagonist that won’t fail the script. Sadly, Ram Charan doesn’t look the part, yet.

·         Ram Charan, clearly holds Magadheera close to his heart. The initial few sequences, a montage in the first song, his chest thumping sequences are pointers to that. He looks at ease when dancing and mouthing powerful dialogues. His comic timing, sadly, is non-existent. Amongst all the heroes, who are considered to be challengers to the number one throne, Ram Charan has had the first shot and it comes unstuck. What he needs to do, is to go back to the shed and hone a few acting skills. The aura, and therefore the pressure of being a megastar’s son will wear off after a few movies. It is then that he needs to fall back on his own skills, which at the moment seem too raw. One more advice for him will be to stay away from imitating and remaking his father’s hits. The remixed version of Vaana Vaana pales in comparison to the original. The pair in this song doesn’t quite match up to Chiranjeevi and Vijayashanti. These are the tangibles that are not taken into account by the makers. Well, he still has the burden of Zanjeer on his back

·         What is left in Tammana that is not seen by us? She has shown us as much as a U/A certificate would allow. It’s a pity, because she is a good performer as evidenced by her performances in 100% love and Happy Days. She has nothing to do to do in the movie. There are shades of Oosaravelli characterisation in this movie. She is much better at performing, than at swaying her hips. Hopefully, Endukkante Premantha will get her back to better times

·         Sampath Nandi. The less talked about him, the better. How he could get this story through multiple filters in the Chiranjeevi family will remain a mystery. It is difficult to see him getting to direct a star in the near future.

·         Finally, the producers. They started a movie called Merupu and it was shelved midway. This movie is sure to incur losses and it will be added to the expenses that they incurred on that non-starter. Looks like Ram Charan will have to forego his remuneration for this movie too. One question that I want to pose is, the body that Ram Charan built up in Miami was for Merupu or Racha?