Balakrishna’s Bhagavanth Kesari: A Historic Hit Celebrating Heroism
Review by Rajeshwari Kalyanam
Bro I don’t care – says Bhagavanth Kesari – in the latest Dasara release of actor Balakrishna. Balayya is a phenomenon that rides high on mass euphoria, which always goes several notches up when the mega phone is held by a director who leverages on this phenomenon, and creates magic.
Several directors have scored massive hits with Balakrishna, however, only a handful of them have managed to look beyond his mass avtar and his often repeated style, mannerisms & dialogues & action sequences. This happened with films like Aditya 369, Narasimha Naidu, Paisa Vasool and now Anil Ravipudi’s directorial – Bhagavanth Kesari.
Director Anil Ravipudi who is otherwise known for his entertainment & comedy movies like F2 & F3 has pulled of a Balayya film with all the paraphernalia intact- his inimitable style, catchy one liners, massy dances and noisy fights where Balayya Singlehandedly bashes up 100s. But, Anil Ravipudi looked beyond the usual. Even while leveraging on the mass appeal of Balayya Babu, the director managed to create an unforgettable character of Bhagavanth Kesari – and he has once again proved that the director is indeed the captain, who can steer his ship towards box office success with a right story, screenplay, direction and dialogues. The four pillars that make this film a massive hit.
Balakrishna plays the role of Bhagavanth Kesari, the super strong jail inmate standing up for good. He finds a good Samaritan in the jailor, who helps him get released from the jail on August 15. The jailor however dies in an accident and his daughter is left in the care of Bhagavanth Kesari. He becomes Vijji’s ever protective ever loving chicha, which is the Hyderabadi word for uncle. He also makes it his life mission to get Vijji join Indian army as per her father’s last wish. The film is about how Vijji for whom he leaves behind his life, becomes the reason for locking horns with the villain in his life Rahul Sanghvi. Arjun Rampal is casted perfectly in the role of the anti hero who is the rightly built antagonist for Anil Ravipudi’s super strong Bhagavanth Kesari.
Young Vijji grows up into this fun loving non serious kind of young girl , which Sree Leela gets to portray. Before we get back to Balayya, a quick review of Sree Leela’s role. Without revealing much one can say that this promising young actor is not confined to being a pretty damsel in distress. The film offers her a wide scope in addition to looking pretty, and she comes out with flying colours through out, songs as well as the action scenes. Beti Ko Banao Sherni fits well into the premise of the film thanks to this attention to Sree Leela’s gaining of confidence, thanks to her Chicha’s efforts. For a change you see someone else fighting alongside Balayya that too a girl.
Coming back to the story – the film starts in a flashback mode & has more than one flashbacks. Everyone seems to know everyone in their back story…which defines the cause & effect of many fight sequences.
Adding to the entertainment factor is comedy, which is ofcourse Anil’s forte that he weaved seamlessly into the scenes and fight sequences. His hero Balayya sports a salt & pepper look. And through out the film you see a suave Balayya minus the loud gestures & shouts, who impresses 35 year old psychologist Kajal Aggarwal. Their love story does not get much attention – they don’t even get a song and dance number perhaps for want of time in this already lengthy movie.
Balayya rocks as this supremely fun, entertaining, tongue in cheek guy, who is emotional too, but that does not take away from his action scenes – the hero does not disappoint in the action department as well. The fights are choreographed in such a way that in addition to being just bloody they are engaging to watch.
Barring the director’s enthusiasm to add too many scenes that pause the main story and divert narrative while he is drawing attention to yet another noble quality of the hero – like for example his teaching of good touch – bad touch on stage (handled well but surely a scene that does not add value to the film per se) – Anil Ravipudi has created a historic hit film that is a joyride for Balayya fans. Songs are already chartbusters and Ananth Sriram and Kasarla Shyam add soul to Thaman’s melodies. Music director Thaman veers towards melody this time in addition to powerful background score.
Balayya in the movie says – people expect noise from him. And he has indeed unapologetically delivered noise, and so much more too.
