Film: PSV Garuda Vega 126.18M
Cast: Rajasekhar, Pooja Kumar, Nasser, Shraddha Das
Director: Praveen Sattaru
Rating:
After churning out social dramas, director Praveen Sattaru is out to dissect a thriller and has arrived with a new recipe that’s high on action, style and substance. He deals with the plutonium scam that had remained undiscovered after the Pokhran nuclear bomb explosions. Set in the backdrop of Hyderabad, PSV Garuda Vega 126.18M is Rajasekhar’s best film in recent times. The yesteryear angry young man of Tollywood has been hovering in the wings for long and this film has given him a much-vaunted opportunity to reinvent himself.
Rajasekhar plays an unflinching NIA officer Chandra Sekhar. He always puts his duty above everything else and has been at the receiving end for not devoting his time for his wife and kid. A situation arises where a tormented Sekhar had to make a choice between duty and family to bring his life back on track. But then, fate has other plans as he comes across a gang that is on a trail to eliminate Niranjan Iyer (Adith), a hacker, who gets entangled in the murky hotbed of politics. With his trusted aides Venkat (Charandeep) and Yadav (Ravi Varma), Sekhar sets out to prevent a major catastrophe.
The film begins quite well with a racy chase sequence of a hacker, who is on the run to save his life from the assassins by jumping into a river from a moving train. It’s then followed by a high-voltage action sequence where Sekhar and his team foil a bomb blast, defuse the explosives which were planted to kill opposition leader Pratap Reddy (Posani Krishna Murali).
Garuda Vega goes on a promising note till the interval and post that, the director seems to lose focus and the second hour gets too heavy and the plot meanders too much. So much so, the seriousness of the proceedings gets diluted with Prudhvi’s farce comedy and Sunny Leone’s item number that appears completely irrelevant to the story. The major issue is Praveen tried to spice up things with hacking techniques which the audience may find it complex and confusing. At the same time, one cannot stop praising him for presenting a serious subject lightly.
The film balances between family emotions and action element quite well. If you do not try to find too much of the logic and go to the theatre with an open mind to get entertained, then you will not be disappointed at all. However, the pre-climax scenes are stuffed with usual melodrama that is needlessly dragged. Leaving the plot open for a sequel, Garuda Vega concludes with the killings of the NIA security personnel who were deployed to protect Sekhar and his family from the evil clutches.
Rajasekhar pulls off the role with great enthusiasm and confidence. He surprises with yet another charming performance as an NIA sleuth. Pooja Kumar is convincing as a nagging wife. However, her chemistry with Rajasekhar fails to weave a magic. Shraddha Das has a blink-and miss-role. Nasser is at ease and Srinivas Avasarala is passable. Kishore is alright and Prudhvi couldn’t leave an impact.
Charandeep and Ravi Varma play their part pretty well. Although Adith gets little tedious at times, his performance is satisfactory. And watching the beautiful Sunny Leone will make masses go crazy. Accentuated by Sri Charan Pakala’s alluring background score, the film is slick and visually stylised — credit to the cinematographer Anji. Overall, Praveen Sattaru has narrated a pulsating thriller that manages to keep the audience engrossed, without losing his mark.