If I have to start with mentioning the highlights of this film, one full page might have to be devoted to it. So, let me simply say that it is one of the most awaited films of the year as the second release of Ram Charan Tej.

Story:

              The film starts with a brief preamble that shows two lovers dying ununited four hundred years ago and Srihari declaring that they will be born again to meet again and be successful in love this time.
             Present time: Harsha (Ram Charan) is a bike racer. He comes across Indu (Kajal Agarwal) accidentally. They meet often and gradually fall in love with each other without intending to. Indu’s family is living in poor conditions but they are actually from a royal family with a legal dispute going on between them and their uncle. Uncle’s son, Raghuveer (Devgil) desires Indu and plans to marry her in order to have her. We are told that his desire in fact is four hundred years old. He could not attain her in the previous life because she was in love with a guy called Bhairava (Ram Charan). His priest tells him that they are all destined to come across again in this birth and he has to carefully plan if he wants to win the girl this time. The dice is already rolled, and all the prime players of four hundred years’ old rivalry and unfulfilled desires are set to come across now. Due to Raghuveer’s cunning plan, Harsha and Indu get separated and Indu is suddenly full of hatred for Harsha as she is under the impression that he killed her father.

               Here the flashback is revealed, Mitravinda (Kajal) is the daughter of the king of Udayagiri. Her cousin, the sainyadhikari is the villainous person trying to marry her and have the kingdom to himself. Kala Bhairava (Ram Charan) is the trainer of the army and Mitra is in love with him. The astrologers predict that due to the constellation of eight planets, the kingdom and the king’s daughter will face many difficulties. Sher Khan (Sri Hari) is a dreaded muslim king intent to consume Udayagiri. In his sincerity to safeguard the kingdom and obey the king, Bhairav hides his love for Mitra. Sainyadhikari joins hands with Sher Khan and kills the king. Bhairava’s dareness and fighting spirit pleases Sher Khan but he fails to help the lovers in uniting. End of flashback, now that Harsha is reminded of the past fully, what he does to reunite with his lady love and how he overcomes the rival in this life forms the rest of the story.

Actors:

Ram Charan suits the difficult folklore character almost finely. Only factor that seems a bit of a concern is his diction. His dialog delivery certainly needs to get better, but his ease in entertaining scenes, emotional situations, dances, and action sequences is commendable for an actor doing a second film. Kajal looks good in both roles. The villain, newcomer named Devgil seems a good find. If he cares to learn speaking telugu better, he would get many more chances for sure. Sri Hari did his bit in a key role. Sharat Babu looked OK as the king. Rao Ramesh’s outing as the evil Ghora was brief and could have had more. Most of the story runs around these principal actors and doesn’t offer much more to any other role. Sunil and Brahmanandam deserved more screen space.

Technical Departments:

First thing commendable is the camera. Senthil’s work was almost flawless. It is clear that he had many references to try and match in his work, influence of films like “Gladiator, Braveheart, The Cell, Mummy, 300, Hero, Crouching Tiger…, Troy etc. were clearly visible. Nevertheless, a telugu technician coming close to match the excellence of these films is not a small achievement. The shots of the lovers falling from the cliffs, dying, are curiously not upto the mark compared to the other difficult, well done portions of the film. The next mention should go to the art work. The settings are huge and resplendent.

Over all:

                The stamp of Rajamouli is visible all over the film. For sheer grandeur and technical detail, the film attains the level of textbook material in telugu film history. But, unfortunately the film is lacking in some areas. In specifics, more entertainment, more comedy, more romance and hard hitting emotions were lacking. The film is good, it’s well made, all faculties doing an excellent job, actors shining out etc, but a feeling of something missing to complete the meal was there.

 Rating:           3 out of 5                                                         by        Raghu