Chatrapathi

I guess Chatrapathi came when SSR was still working out his own formula because it is as generic as it gets.

In the lead, Prabhas is Shivaji aka Chatrapathi, yet another messiah of the masses, ideal son to traditional mother (a dowdy Bhanupriya) and dashing lover to typical Telugu movie imported decorative heroine (Shriya Saran). Most of the surrounding cast exists purely to marvel at how awesome Shivaji is. There's a glimmer of interest in the form of a vengeful step-brother who does all he can to poison the bond between the dowdy maa and adarsh beta, but the writing is flimsy and inconsistent, making the character a pompous buffoon. The Srilankan origin of the lead characters is ignored once they reach India, reducing them to standard oppressed basti-walas. Bollywood's Narendra Jha and Pradeep Rawat appear as unlikely Telugu speaking Northie baddies who run the vaguest form of criminal enterprise. I think they're supposed to be brothers, but one is called Bajirao and the other is Raas Bihari, go figure. Without a real script, SSR just bungs in a load of assorted elements. There's an odious parallel comedy track with an obnoxious guy doing assorted movie parodies (in one lengthy scene he apes Vikram's Anniyan performance). Apart from the by-the-numbers hero-heroine songs, there are two item numbers with women who have no other role in the film. The action scenes, with flailing of axes and pipe-wrenches, are mildly interesting but SSR is yet to develop the visual rhythm he brandished in the Bahubali films. Prabhas' introduction scene is at least amusing in terms of having the most unconvincing shark-fighting scene in cinematic history with Playstation1 quality CGI, but the bulk of Chatrapathi is just tedious twaddle.