Nagarjuna Akkineni and Nani are known for their acting skills. Nag is even more known for his undeniably stunning screen presence and looks. So, when two-star performers decide to come together and deliver an entertainer like Devadas, how did it turn out to be? Did it reach the expectations? Let’s discuss …
Plot : Dasu (Nani) finishes his training and also gets a Gold Medal after completing MS. He wants to join a big corporate hospital but his too straightforward, truthful and innocent behavior earns him more enemies at his hospital. Hence, he shifts to a local old clinic that has no patients.
One day, Deva (Nagarjuna) comes to his clinic and changes the shape of it all. A forced friendship forges between them and it becomes real after a point. The entire thing shifts when Deva has to execute one of his plans and Dasu opposes it. What’s happens next forms the rest of the story…
Performances : Nagarjuna Akkineni is the life of this film. His screen presence and his ease in performing any complicated emotion make all his scenes delight to watch. He even danced with great ease in the film after a long time and he showed six pack abs at the age of 59! Can’t really believe that he has aged a bit from 25 as he said himself.
Nani at times tried too hard and he needed to control himself a bit in few scenes. But when he got the right scene and right emotion, he rocked it all. His and Nagarjuna’s on-screen bonding is a delight.
Rashmika Mandanna and Akanksha Singh did not get many scenes to shine. Murali Sharma, Kunal Kapoor, Vennela Kishore, Satya are good. Naresh brought house down in two sequences.
Technicalities : Prawin Pudi’s editing is sadly not up to the movie standards. The flow of the film seems to be amiss at several times and he couldn’t fix on the right pacing too.
Shamdat Sainudeen is a master craftsman when it comes to handling the camera. He filled visuals with enough matter to divulge in.
Mani Sharma’s songs are good and the BG score is one of the highlights of the film. He managed to balance the emotions perfectly and gave a score that blends in well.
Sriram Adittya, the writer and director of the movie did not get overwhelmed by the star presence. He tried to give ample scope to all emotions and at the same time tried to keep everything enjoyable. But he took a predictable path in the second hour and the slow narrative harms the overall effect of the film. Still, he managed to come up with a film that handles the stars well. He could have given the story a bit more emotional skeleton to make the movie even better.
Analysis : Moviemaking is not just about good frames and likable actors. They need good content to perform as well. While it is easy to get overwhelmed by stars presence and write unrealistic scenes keeping them all grounded is a must too. The young director, Sriram Adittya understood this basic really well and delivered his best film yet. He can look forward to improving from here than look backward.
He used Nag’s screen presence really well and made Nani the emotional center of the story for a delightful outing. He made sure that the scenes are engaging enough too. Had the story provided a little more weight to both the characters and executed it even better it could have been a classic tale of Bromance! Still, it is a watchable flick for weekend fun.
Rating : 2.5/5
