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!!!