'Devara', produced by Sudhakar Mikkilineni, Kosaraju Harikrishna, and Nandamuri Kalyan Ram, is showing at the cinemas. In this section, we are going to review the box office behemoth.
Plot:
Back in the 1980s, Devara (Jr NTR), a courageous smuggler from a coastal village, sets sail on a daring mission to do the bidding of a kingpin named Muruga (Murali Sharma). When conscience strikes, Devara has a change of heart. This makes him an enemy of Bhaira (Saif Ali Khan), his long-time partner. The rest of the film is what happens to Devara and what his son, Vara (Jr NTR, again), is destined to pull off.
Performances:
Jr NTR delivers a visceral performance that deeply affects the viewer's emotions. The untamed quality of his acting takes the action sequences to the next level.
Saif Ali Khan's acting would have conveyed a sense of authenticity and realism better had he not been dubbed by the usual suspect (read P Ravi Shankar). Janhvi Kapoor (as Vara's love interest Thangam) is convincing in the one duet but is underwhelming otherwise. Shruti Marathe, who plays Devara's wife Jogula, is measured. Prakash Raj makes an impact, while Srikanth, Ajay, Murali Sharma, Abhimanyu Singh, and Shine Tom Chacko don't. Getup Srinu and others are wasted.
Technical aspects:
Anirudh Ravichander's background score measures up to the style of the proceedings. The action blocks look engaging enough thanks to his calibrated score. 'Chuttamalle' is a romantic tour de force; the dance choreography, the chemistry and everything else is right on the money. The thematic 'Fear' song and the rousing 'Ayudha Pooja' song are apt.
Rathnavelu's tight shots focus on the faces and expressions of the actors, conveying their emotions and reactions. The dynamic camera movements receive help from Sreekar Prasad's editing. The VFX is uplifted by the dramatic and stylized lighting.
Post-Mortem:
Writer-director Koratala Siva 2.0 it is. None of the elements in 'Devara' belong to the 1.0 version. The treatment, the emotional arcs, and the cliffhanger climax - none of it is the old-school Koratala.
There are two Taraks and both of them are not typical hero characters. If Devara needs moral redemption, Vara is mocked for his timidity, including by the heroine. At about 170 minutes, the film is a linear action drama with fairly high moments sprinkled throughout. The intergenerational conflict needed a more intense treatment in the second half. The high-stakes drama needed a racier screenplay building up to momentous events.
Vara may be timid but he is not naive. When he constantly looks for validation and a false image, he becomes a grounded character. The graph of the character Bhaira takes a beating in the second hour. This is a glaring drawback in a film where the linear narration makes things look more hackneyed than they already are.
One particular scene should have attained an epic proportion: the stretch where Devara pushes a consignment into the sea while his just-born rivals push against it needed a Rajamouli-esque imagination. There is no reason why the opposition should come from just one end. Why do Bhaira and others just keep watching? Why don't they actively seek to harm Devara? Had Devara tamed an attempt on his life during the scene, the physicality of his character would have been fleshed out. And the sense of fear he invokes in Bhaira and others would have been all the more believable.
Closing Remarks:
'Devara' makes for a decent watch. Jr NTR and Koratala Siva sail through.
