Bholaa 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 The film repackages outdated, formulaic tropes and presents them with the confidence that star presence - Chiranjeevi, Tamannaah Bhatia and Keerthy Suresh - is enough to salvage a listless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.

Bhola Shankar is the Telugu remake of Tamil film Vedalam and it is a loyal remake with minor changes. Shankar (Chiranjeevi) has arrived in Kolkata along with his sister Mahalakshmi (Keerthy Suresh). The reason for him to move to Kolkata is get Maha admitted in a prestigious arts college there and he has another agenda, that is to kill the gang involved in human trafficking. Why is he after them is narrated in the flashback and how he kills them all forms rest of the story.

The original version too was below average, saved by Ajith's performance clubbed with Anirudh's bgm. The entire hype revolved around them and in the remake, it is exactly what missing. Sure, Megastar has given a committed performance to play to the gallery but there is no novelty factor. The narrative is so dated, right from the writing to execution, none of the scenes stood out. Even Chiranjeevi went through the emotions monotonously like everybody else on a paycheck.

The only thing they invested some ideas was on the inclusion of Pawan Kalyan songs and have Chiranjeevi imitate him for the sake of fans, otherwise the film remained a tedious watch throughout. None of the songs were memorable for Chiranjeevi's grace to save them. Action scenes were repetitive and nothing to boast about. In short, Megastar Chiranjeevi isn't enough to save this mess.

Bad 1st half

comedy scenes didn't workout properly looks like artificial and some scenes are cringe,best stuff for trollers,BGM is ok

2nd half way better than 1st half with some emotional scenes

heroine character is not needed,heroine will appear only if songs needed,so many Cringe comedy scenes,no screenplay at all,just a routine commercial film,chiru should be wise while choosing scripts,may be fans will enjoy it,for me it's an average or below par

Positives

1 Chiru dance moves,looks like vintage moves 2 Chiru appearance 3 some emotional scenes between Keerthi and chiru

Negatives

1 Irritating songs 2 bad screenplay 3 unneccesary usage of PK movie reference 4 no proper usage of characters including heroine 5 routine story

Overall- Routine commercial film can't expect more than that 2/5.

Chiranjeevi should stop making remake movies, literally this movie tested my patience to get out of the theatre, please don't waste your hard earned money to this waste movie, What is the use for chiranjeevi to look very young and Romance a young heroine is this necessary at this age.

And coming to director Meher ramesh. I need to see the guy who said him to become director and make direction.

0/10 for music 0/10 for dop 0/10 for cinematography 0/10 for editing All the elements go 0 for this movie.

And chiranjeevi should really come out of those jabardasth comedian elevations and bhajana.

And the music director he is a son of famous music director mani sharma and he is literally gave dumb music.

1. He need to stop acting in remakes. Remakes are like imitation of a wonderful story in it's worst way.

2. He should know his limits. He should stop romancing & focus on mass character/ family man character.

3. He is 68 & still doing romance with the actresses who his son had worked with.

4. He should give new scripts & script writers a chance to work.

5. He shouldn't intervene in the script. It feels like he is acting for the scripts which which are made from the same template.

In a nutshell, If he is ready to change, he could make revolution in his career. But if he is not, then nobody can save his career.