Movie: Rowdy
Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Cast: Manchu Vishnu, Manchu Mohan Babu, Jayasudha, Shanvi Srivastav, Kishore and Ravi Babu
Rating: ***
There’s a scene in Rowdy where Bannerjee is asked by Mohan Babu to sign an agreement to pay 3 crores to settle a litigation. Ultimately, here the former is the antagonist. He is presented with a set of papers and a pen in front of him with such an emotion that you can’t be blamed for mistaking that for a knife or a gun. For a song lyric that introduces Mohan Babu as a savior for the region, the camera angle turns upside down when the word ‘Talakindulu’ features in the same.Tanikella Bharani,christened Vedam constantly in the underplayed lower tone mouths philosophies in accordance to situations with a wide grin showing his teeth. He gets to do a lot of talking, especially for a baddie who is supposed to be menacing. He is surrounded by an actor who shaves his head completely and the camera focuses that.There’s another strange character who keeps uttering the word ‘Sodara’ to each of his lines and eats a cake every time a murder plan is discussed. These are certain aspects, patterns that RGV has refused to part with in the recent times. Not to forget the otherwise frequent amalgam of the Govinda Govinda and Rakta Charitra backgrounds to elevate the emotional graph.If it’s about Godfather here, yes, it is about an instinct based system in a land that permits a man of strength to rise above law and order. The initial quarter of the film has a viewer very suffocated and cheated on Rowdy not being announced as an official remake of Sarkar or a Gaayam. Only when they free themselves of the impressions, they get to appreciate the clear return of Mohan Babu as a veteran, who plays his age and has an apt female counterpart Jayasudha. He says ‘RESPECT’ whenever he’s impressed by a person’s decision or a demeanour. His voice-modulations are near perfect here. He has the smart one-liners that dialogue-writers purposely feed him with, but his words are no more a farce to the senses.Vishnu is a good bet too, as the maker smartly doesn’t give him a great chance to smile or create humor by restricting his part to cold-hearted expressions throughout. So is the combined presence of the father-son duo who for the first time look perfectly cast for their parts. Shanvi is a mere eye-candy whereas Jayasudha gets a supreme act done neatly.Kishore, Tanikella Bharani, Paruchuri Sathyanaryana do their job well too. The brownish tinge in accordance to the theme as part of the impressive cinematographic value help suffice the entire watching experience. Provided one doesn’t look at RGV’s stint in other languages or the works of his past, a spectator has every need to be satisfied, as it is an individualistic product worthy of attention and deserves to be seen sans comparisons or barriers for the performances at least.Review by Srivathsan N, who had originally written it for Cinegoer.net