‘Bhagavanth Kesari,’ directed by Anil Ravipudi and starring Nandamuri Balakrishna, maintains a mix between dramatic action and emotional drama while promoting women’s empowerment.
Bhagavanth Kesari writer and director, Anil Ravipudi, had indicated in some pre-release interviews that in their first project together with Nandamuri Balakrishna, they had tried to make a movie that wouldn’t be restricted to the star’s fan base. Undoubtedly, the movie makes an effort not to follow in the footsteps of Balakrishna’s more recent films. By taking on the part of a Telangana boy who speaks Telugu, Anil Ravipudi has given Balakrishna a fresh perspective and challenged his conventional acting approach. Beyond the movie’s “I don’t care” tagline, Balakrishna maintains his own approach by delivering more jokes than anyone can manage. In addition, Shri Leela’s portrayal of the character strongly emphasizes the empowerment of women.
It’s great that the romantic interests of the 22-year-old Balakrishna were left out and that she was given a significant part. However, Anil Balakrishna and Kajal Agarwal don’t perform any love songs together. But is this all there is?
Anil spends a lot of time setting up Bhagavanth Kesari world in this 164-minute movie. The protagonist of the story is foreboding. We find out about his incomplete and perplexing assignment the instant he is introduced to us in jail. We know what to expect as soon as we witness Sarth Kumar dressed as a police officer with his small daughter. Following a turn of events, Nellakonda Bhagavanth Kesari, commonly known as NBK, is tasked with guarding the daughter in place of her father. Anil Ravipudi makes sure that we are constantly reminded that NBK is not just any name, and he gives the character a fresh perspective by having Balakrishna speak Telangana Telugu and be a “Bidda” (son of the wild).
There are a lot of one-note characters in the plot. At least three males of various ages have expressed the opinion that women ought to be relegated to domestic life, raising children, and performing physically demanding activities. The voice of reason is provided by Katyaayani, a psychologist played by Kajal Agarwal, whose portrayal of the character makes it difficult to take her seriously. The popular psychology she depicts is unreliable in the real world.
The narrative weaves in ridiculous jokes about how Katyaayani finds Bhagavanth Kesari’s salty and spicy demeanor alluring and seeks to seduce him as if to make up for the lack of a humorous portion. Because he is older than 30, she calls him “Aunty” at one point. Even though it was meant as a comedy, several people in the theater were laughing heartily. Grotesque humor is also present in a scene that takes place in a police station and sets up the opportunity for males to demonstrate their courage in defense of the male protector. When the movie couldn’t avoid such writing, I began to wonder what the idea of women’s emancipation actually meant.
The father-daughter narrative has a parallel thread that is linked to business tycoon Rahul Sanghvi’s (Arjun Rampal) discussion on Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest and the laws of nature. The father-daughter tale and the Kesari-Rahul tale coupled, as expected, resurrect an old plot. Rampal’s character isn’t all that dissimilar from the cardboard-like antagonists chosen from Telugu and Hindi film’s well-known actors. Rampal marginally improves it by dubbing it in Telugu.
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There are several action scenes in the lengthy action play when Balakrishna maintains his invincibility and delivers more impactful speech. Sometimes all he needs to fight gangs is a steel pail. At other times, he can operate a bus within a lavish mansion or a truck inside a warehouse. Anything is conceivable, but it gets boring.
In a scene that turns into a joke about a large pistol, similar to those in recent Tamil blockbusters, Balakrishna claims that his audience wants more “sound” and destroys all the weapons.
