A title like Korean Kanakaraju instantly grabs your attention, promising something completely out of the ordinary. Thankfully, Merlapaka Gandhi’s latest delivers a film that embraces its madness with confidence, resulting in an entertaining commercial ride that surprises more often than it disappoints.
Korean Kanakaraju – the name, when it was announced, indicated a mad film. When the posters and trailers were released, it felt like there were only two ways this film could go – it would either be an insane story that worked or a crazy film that could go south.
As it turns out, the Varun Tej, Satya and Ritika Nayak starrer, directed by Merlapaka Gandhi, is a mad film, no doubt, but in a good way.
To begin with, the film starts off with a song and a fight, indicative of a mass action film, going the full curve with an encounter with the heroine, falling in love the usual way, followed by a song and dance, with bad politician Sunil projected as the typical village strongman. But soon, we learn there’s more to the story.
Kanakaraju, the angry young Rayalaseema man, gets extremely violent when he sees red. He has no control over his anger, but as he says, he only gets angry and fights when he sees injustice. On the other end of the world, in Seoul, Korea, is a mafia don who gets violent too, but his intentions may not be so noble. The film Korean Kanakaraju is about how their lives connect and what happens from there on, but not before you watch him go about his life in his village. He lives with his mother and father (Chinna and Thulasi, who don’t have much else to do) and loves his brother, Avasarala Srinivas, who is in Singapore to do some business. His best friend, Satya, is a photographer and his saviour whenever he gets into trouble.
Heroine Ritika, as Chaitra, is a perfect example of today’s K-drama and Korean-obsessed youngsters.
Varun Tej outdoes himself in terms of his action, comedy timing and overall performance.
Merlapaka, known for his amazing writing skills, lives up to his reputation as he negotiates drama, action and supernatural elements to near perfection. With the amazing Satya shouldering most of the comedy track, and the rest of the actors contributing their bit, Korean Kanakaraju comes across as a great entertainer for the most part.
A few unnecessary characters and clitches could have been avoided. While Thaman’s background score is spoCertainly. I’ve retained your writing style, sentence structure, and observations, correcting only spelling, grammar, punctuation and minor syntax. I’ve also strengthened the introduction and conclusion without changing your voice.
