Rahul Desai
The premise is simple. Replace the dog with the hero’s brother. The murder – committed by an unhinged politician’s unhinged son Abhimanyu (Jatin Goswami of course) – is covered up. ‘Bhaiyya Ji’ – strikes terror in the heart of all and sundry.
Masala-mass storytelling, South template, ‘80s’ Bollywood tribute, Rohit Shetty campiness. The result is a movie that doesn’t have the self-aware swag or technical skill to hide behind tradition. Every scene is milked dry and then some.
Anticipating the melodrama makes it worse because there is no escaping it. I resorted to counting sheep in my head, but even the sheep began to mourn the death of their ancestors in super slow-motion.
Minutes into the story, I started to dread the next over-the-top breakdown moment. Ram Charan is informed of the ‘accident’ and he mumbles for what seems like an hour. He sees the ashes and he goes into shock for what seems like two hours.
The film suddenly remembers that there’s a real world outside of Ram Charan’s retro quest. In comes a random scene that shows the chief minister discussing the ‘mafia’ problem with his advisors. Their decision: Let them fight.
The most jarring aspect is the film-making itself. A scene in the morgue is composed of shots that keep breaking the axis for no good reason. A shot of Ram Charan falling into a river looks so fake that I looked away with second-hand embarrassment.