'Daruvu' (Telugu)
Director: Souryam Siva
Cast: Ravi Teja, Tapsee, Sushanth Singh, Brahmanandam and others
Times are definitely changing, even with regard to the concept of re-incarnation. Looks like, now one can be re-born just like oneself, with a small twist though. One can be the home minister, all of a sudden in their second birth. What?! Yes!
Bullet Raja (Ravi Teja. Not Betting Raj as in 'Rachcha'), a small-time crook more with the shades of The Artful Dodger than Oliver Twist, dies because of Chitragupta’s (Yamaraja’s sidekick) mistake and is taken to Yama Lokam. And since it was Yama’s mistake, he is given a chance to get back to Earth and relive in the body of a corrupt politician Ravinder, who is also the state’s home minister.
Bullet Raja comes back to Earth with a mission to set things right in the society. He becomes “Prajala nayakudu” (people’s leader) and does everything that a leader should be doing. Sadly, it’s in a movie. He does some very predictable things like helping a pregnant woman reach a hospital.
He also starts a cool concept called, send an MMS, grab a gift, according to which people have to record an anti-social event and send the MMS, after which criminals get scared of mobile phones. He also gets a bullet in the heart and is almost dead for the second time, but prayers from people across the state bring him back. (Silent tears)
So, among too much information and a little more overaction, one almost forgets the heroine, Shweta (Tapsee) who plays Raja’s love interest. She happens to be the niece of the villain, Harbour Babu, who develops a grudge and kills Bullet Raja.
'Daruvu' (the sound of mass) does have a fresh subject, but goes horribly wrong in implementation. With too much of information put randomly across the movie, the story line falls at a rapid pace in the first half. Loud attitudes and unnecessary comedy bits take it nowhere. But in the second half, the movie gains form and does justice to the script. The fact that there is not much of family drama or struggle to attain love is relieving.
It’s not often that mass masala movies convey a message. The director, however, did manage to put it across to people to a great extent. With a majority of the screen space being allotted to Ravi Teja, the other characters lose their significance. However satires on politics and politicians save the the movie. Jaya Sudha (Ravi Teja’s mother) had a decent role, with exactly three dialogues. Vennella Kishore does his part well, while Brahmanandam brings in humour as a dance teacher, Vidya Balan.
The director seems to have learnt his lessons only partially, from Ravi Teja’s previous flicks. He did prepare a script that suits his body language and his mimicking abilities, but he let the audience down with an overboard comedy. Vijay Anthony’s music is good even if he used all the tunes of his Tamil movies. The chances of success look bleak for this one.