Rating : 2.75/5
Film: Bhai
Starring: Nagarjuna, Richa Gangopadhyay, Sonu Sood, Kamna Jethmalani
Director: Veerabhadram Chowdary
Producer: Nagarjuna
Banner: Annapurna Studios
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Story
David (Asish Vidyardhi) is mafia don gang head in Hong Kong and Bhai aka Vijay (Nagarjuna) works as key member in his team. David relies mostly on Bhai rather than his sons James (Sonu Sood), Tony (Ajay) which makes them to envy him. An undercover cop starts killing vital members of mafia interrupting their operations in Hyderabad, and David assigns the task to Bhai to kill the cop, who later comes across some shocking facts. Who is the undercover cop? What does Bhai find out and How does he resolve it forms the crux.
Performances
Nagarjuna looked charming, stylish in his getups but his characterization lacked intensity and the senseless dialogues didn’t suit the actor. Despite his hard efforts, his hard work goes in vain due to poor script.
Richa Gangophadyay has nothing much to perform but shake legs in songs and look glamorous and she has done it good.
Brahmanandam is wasted in a poor role, Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao was brief but noticeable, MS Narayana is monotonous in regular role, Prasanna has limited role, Zara Shah is impressive. Kamna Jethmalani hardly has couple of scenes. Rest others Asish Vidyarthi, Sonu Sood, Sayaji Shinde, Jayaprakash Reddy are pretty ordinary.
Technical Analysis
Devi Sri Prasad’s musical scores are good but the songs are poorly captured. Background score isn’t effective. Veerabhadram Chowdary fails in direction, punch dialogue are overflowing and lacks sense, screenplay is inconsistent, and editing is jerky. The only asset from technicalities is Annapurna Studios Production values.
Analysis
Mafia backdrop films aren’t new to Tollywood and the genre films works due to stylishness in hero characterizations and the underworld mafia set up besides the taut screenplay and a good story. Sadly, nothing works for Bhai other than Nagarjuna’s hard efforts. Director Veerabhadram Chowdary failed in establishing the characterizations and handled the scenes amateurishly. The storyline is wafer thin though it had a couple of good twists, but the poor handling takes away audiences’ interest.
Half way into Bhai, the sentiment scenes work when the main plot twist gets revealed. Pre-interval episodes create curiosity and so the second half picks up momentum and pre-climax has some very good scenes. However, the comedy scenes and songs picturization are pathetically handled. The climax has nothing new to offer. Plentiful needless punch dialogues and fights are unconvincing but the worst part is the director failing in his strong forte ‘entertainment’. Veerabhadram has wasted a good opportunity of handling a star hero like Nagarjuna
Final Verdict
Forced commercial elements distracts you away from main story… On the whole, Bhai is a below average fare!!!
