Story
Governor Scott (Ray Steveson) takes away a gond tribal girl from Adilabad. Bheem (Jr. NTR) is a Gond tribal leader who protects them. Bheem travels to Delhi and works in the guise of a muslim mechanic while trying to find a way to rescue the girl. Ram (Ram Charan) works as an officer in the British police force in Delhi. He is career oriented and does anything to rise through the ranks. You can sense a secret intention in his ambition. They both become friends and they are unaware of each other's intentions and their past. Rest of the story is all about what happens when their real intentions are revealed.
Artists Performance
Jr. NTR gets a role that has two dimensions to it. Innocence and ferocity. It takes guts for any actor to do this role and NTR accepts it and delivers a great performance. It was Temper that showed me what kind of an actor NTR is. NTR’s performance in the Komaram Bheemudo song takes his performance to the next level. He transformed himself into the character. Komaram Bheemudo is a kind of scene that works only when an actor gives his absolute best. He is extremely good in emotional scenes with the kid.
Ram Charan is fortunate enough to get a role that has a character arc and scope to perform various emotions. He has intense eyes and used them to maximum extent in the film. His emotional performance in pre interval scenes is of high quality. It’s difficult for any actor to match it with an actor of NTR’s caliber and Ram Charan makes it work big time. He is extremely chivalrous in the scenes of making NTR character fall in love in the first half. And very intense in emotional scenes.
Rahul Ramakrishna is excellent as a follower of NTR. Ajay Devgn played a character that comes in the flashback. His role is limited. Alia Bhatt’s screen time is very less. She is extremely good in a scene in the second half. Ray Steveson is terrific as the Governor and Alison Doody is good as his wife. Rana Daggubati has given Telugu voice-over to Ray Steveson. Olivia Morris is perfect for the role of NTR's love interest. Shriya Saran has done a miniscule role with finesse. Samuthirakani is good. The child artist who played the chitti role is impeccable.
Technical departments
Story - screenplay - direction: Story by Vijayendra Prasad is good. The film has two threads intertwined. One is about how Bheem brings Malli (who is captured by the British Governor) back. Other one is about the hidden goal of Ram. The screenplay is woven between Ram and Bheem characters. The relationship between them keeps changing because of various factors. This story is about how both of them realize their goals. Bheem - Malli thread is very heart-touching and poignant. The first half deals with this thread. Second half deals with the hidden agenda of the Ram character. The hidden agenda of Ram is not as heart-touching/impactful as Bheem-Malli thread.
The water (Bheem) and fire (Ram) theme was maintained throughout the film in key scenes (including a snake bite scene where Bheem uses water and fire along with herbal leaves as an antidote).
Rajamouli did use quite a lot of payoff techniques like Bangle for malli, locket for Ram - Seeta’s love, connecting Bheem’s intro to the interval episode, establishing tacit understanding between Ram & Bheem right at the first meet and carry it through climax, telling the bullet-costing-process at the beginning and using the same logic in reverse during climax, making Bheem lift Ram on his shoulder in their first meet song and use it for the climax in a more effective way etc. All the payoffs worked to good effect. Whether audiences notice or not, commercial payoffs like these play at subconscious level to get connected to the movie.
Rajamouli who has packed the trailer of the film with goosebumps stuff has saved a key sequence for the interval episode and it’s quite a pleasant shock. I expected the conflict (Malli rescue) to be resolved at the end. But after the interval, the story focuses more on the conflict between Ram and Bheem. Second half is more about their misunderstandings followed by clearing them and achieving Ram’s goal.
Komaram Bheemudo song holds a great importance in the film as it’s used at a key moment. Nobody knows the mass pulse better than director Rajamouli. He went with the story and has shown the vulnerabilities of characters though Ram and Bheem possess extraordinary fighting skills.
Other departments: Music by MM Keeravani is a huge asset. Background music is also excellent. He has blended Dosti song and Chitti song in the background music to elevate the emotion to the maximum. Cinematography by Senthil is of top notch quality. Cinematography and visual effects went hand in hand. Production design by Sabu Cyril deserves a great applause. The Governor’s palace of the colonial times is exquisite. Dialogues written by Sai Madhav Burra are good. He has used some forgotten words from Telangana dialect in this film. Editing by Sreekar Prasad is sharp. Costumes designed by Rama Rajamouli are excellent with a lot of detailing. Prem Rakshit’s choreography for Natu Natu song and actors dance to it is mind-blowing. This song alone has the power to draw audiences to the theater again. Action choreography by Soloman is quite extraordinary. Production values by DVV Danayya are world class.
Analysis: First half of the film is superb and it introduces characters and establishes conflict in a proper classic way. Second half shifts the conflict orientation from the British vs Bheem to Ram vs Bheem. The story of the film is thin and the director had to depend on screenplay and commercial payoffs. Screenplay in the first half is excellent. Second half is sluggish. But, the director made sure that there is a continuous flow of high octane moments in the second half to keep us keenly interested in proceedings. We need to ignore the historical accuracy of Komaram Bheem and Seetaramaraju and see this story as a fictional one. If you keep in mind that this story is more about bromance, separation and reunion of Ram & Bheem, you will enjoy the film more. Definitely worth a watch!
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