Amid high expectations, Nandamuri Balakrishna starrer Veera Simha Reddy under the direction of Gopichand Malineni has hit the screens today. Let’s see how it fares.
Story: The film opens in Istanbul where Jay( Balakrishna) will be leading a happy life with his mother Meenakshi ( Honey Rose). Accidentally, Jay crosses paths with Isha( Shruti Haasan). Eventually, Isha connects with Jay. Noticing the same, Meenakshi keeps the marriage proposal in front of Isha’s family. For further marriage discussions, Meenakshi rings Veera Simha Reddy( elder Balakrishna) who lives alone in Pulicherla in the Kurnool district of Rayalaseema. What is the relationship between Veera Simha Reddy and Meenakshi’s family? How Bhanumati ( Varalakshmi Sarathkumar) and her husband Pratap Reddy( Duniya Vijay) are interconnected with Veera Simha Reddy’s life, forms crucial crux.
Performances: Undoubtedly, Balakrishna is a major asset for the film. His avatar as an aged factionist from Rayalaseema is superb. His screen presence with swag brings the required energy to all key scenes.
Especially, Balayya’s settled emotional acting during the interval block brings depth to the entire block. On the other hand, Balayya is okay with his getup in the young look. Balayya’s dances in two songs will be a treat to watch for the fans. Shruti Haasan is okay with her limited screen time. Except for songs, Shruti Haasan’s role has nothing to do with the movie proceedings.
Malayalam actress Honey Rose is impressive with her acting in the given key role. She has been showcased in two dimensions and her performance registers well. Varalakshmi Sarathkumar is a surprise package for the film. Her acting adds weight to the flashback portions and a few scenes in the second half. Duniya Vijay is amazing in his negative shaded character. The face-off scenes between Pratap Reddy and Veera Simha Reddy are shot well.
Other artists such as Ajay Ghosh, Murali Sharma and Sapathagiri are okay in their limited roles.
Technicalities: The photography work by Rushi Panjabi is captivating as he presented the rustic flavor of the film in a superb manner. He showcased Balayya in an outstanding way.
Dialogues written by Burra Sai Madhav are good. While a few political dialogues are a punch to the ruling government in AP, a few other lead character elevation dialogues are whistle worthy.
Thaman’s background score is impressive. His BGM registers nicely. On the other hand, all the songs are passable on screen with some energetic dances from Balayya. Editing by Naveen Nooli is not up to the mark. The production values for this rustic actioner from Mythri Movie Makers are lavish.
Analysis: Director Gopichand Malineni projected Balayya as a perfect Rayalaseema factionist who works for the well-being of his region’s people. Though the idea of mixing faction and family drama is ages old, Gopichand tried to explore a new point in the brother-sister thread. Looks like Gopichand designed Balayya’s character first and wrote the scene order later. Being a fanboy, Gopichand showcased what exactly NBK fans expect from their matinee idol.
Definitely, the film has a few flaws but those are all balanced with Balayya’s screen presence and effective dialogues. To summarize, Veera Simha Reddy is a regular actioner that has all the elements which NBK fans expect from him. As the festival season has just started, the film has fair chances to perform well during this Sankranthi festival weekend.
Verdict: Balayya mark actioner!
Rating: 3/5
