Bhola Shankar

Watching the Telugu movie Bhola Shankar, headlined by Chiranjeevi and directed by Meher Ramesh, is like going back in time by a few decades but not in a good way. The film repackages outdated, formulaic tropes and presents them with the confidence that star presence - Chiranjeevi, Tamannaah Bhatia and Keerthy Suresh - is enough to salvage a listless narrative. Meher Ramesh, credited with 'story development', adapts an eight-year-old Tamil film Vedalam starring Ajith, which was no great shakes either. What unravels is a cocktail of a sappy brother-sister bond, cardboard-ish villain characters, a leading lady who is supposed to contribute to absurd fun and comes across as utterly silly, a lot of tasteless humour and loud, forgetful music.