The movie opens with a sensational kidnapping of the Chief Minister of the State. It is quickly revealed that the kidnapper is a common man. Rest of the film is about the reasons for the kidnap, demands of the kidnapper, backstory of the kidnapper and resolution of the whole thing (the end). Even as the movie progresses, newer twists are revealed, almost till the end. As far as plots go, this is up there with the top among Telugu films. Sensationally, the movie makes demonetisation a central theme - this was years earlier than the November 2016 demonetisation in India.
However in development of this excellent plot, the film falters. When a sensational event is central to the movie, spectators have an expectation the event portrayed is credible. That sadly is not the case. Similarly there are other loose ends, well, kept loose. They are not being discussed here, as they might be spoilers.
The execution is similarly pretty average. It is not merely the romantic song in this sort of movie, that one has a problem with. The protagonist overplays the cool guy part, when understatement was required, and then intensity in portrayal is sorely missing. The police serve as not a lot more than furniture. The NSG operation would have been funny as a spoof, but the director wants you to take it seriously. Sigh! Then, there is the fake beard of the head of NSG, which is so bad that it would be allowed in a school drama only when the first time actor discovers that he has an allergy to glue on the dress rehearsal day and the teacher asks for a beard that can be tied, and need not be glued.
The experienced support cast put in a decent performance given the overall limitations. The new actor, Sri Vishnu, turns in a performance which grows on you. The debutante heroine Shubra Aiyappa gets enough screen time, but does not impress very much, though there is not a whole lot that she messes up. The lead actor, Nara Rohit, once again shows his limitations.
Neeraj Pandey's Hindi film, A Wednesday (remade in English as A Common Man in 2013) shows how such movies are to be made. This Telugu flim is a disappointment.
We saw this on Amazon Prime, going by the then high IMDb rating of 7.5 and felt that something was wrong with the rating. So, I decided to give an average viewer's review and let others know what it is about.
