Baladoor Review

Baladoor features a popular actor from the '70s well past his prime. Unfortunately, it also has a script from the '70s well past its prime. Combined with dialogues so cliched that they make Tinkle look like a Booker Prize nominee, and jokes so banal that you'll want to destroy all evidence that you heard them, it becomes a movie that seems to do the impossible - make a Ravi Teja movie more boring than just anything else you can do instead.

Chanti (Ravi Teja) is the son of Purushottam (Chandramohan), who, after the death of his wife, stays with his super-rich elder brother Ramakrishna (Krishna), managing the latter's financial affairs. Chanti is a fun-loving guy who fools around with friends in his spare time, which should normally not bother his father too much except that all the time that Chanti has is his spare time.

Now no father likes his son to be that jobless, and Purushottam constantly snubs Chanti for being a good-for-nothing lout, but the conversations are mostly one-sided since Purushottam is alone when they are happening. Chanti however is a total family person, and when his sister-in-law is secretly shot by a goon when she is changing in a store's trial room, he beats the crap out of him.

The goon however is the brother of realtor Umapathi (Pradeep Rawat), who hates Ramakrishna for so long now, he's an expert at it. And so they attack Ramakrishna's family at a family function, and while Chanti rescues them, he is thrown out of the house by Purushottam for causing such an incident. Chanti cannot explain things since his sister-in-law's respect is at stake, since he thinks self-sacrifice is an end in itself, and since this movie has such a sorryass script.

In love with Chanti is Bhanu (Anushka), who serves no other useful purpose. Oh yes, she has a body which they need for the songs. Which, incidentally, pop up so infuriatingly obtrusively and old-fashionedly, you wish you could blow someone's head off, even if you won't get reimbursed for it.

Anyway, Ramakrishna's family starts squandering his wealth, Purushottam is slighted, and Chanti has to come to the rescue. Can he save Ramakrishna and his wealth? Can he reform the family? Will he get to marry Bhanu? Will you be able to erase memories of this movie? Answers to these form the rest of the film.

There's good news and bad news for Ravi Teja. The bad news is that he will have to wait a long while for the next bit of good news. The good news is that little after this can be bad news. Krishna is well and truly past his acting days, with little energy in the dialogue delivery - a full role for him is a significant compromise. All other performances are professional. The music is quite average, and you won't call the movie slick-looking unless you are part of the crew giving a TV interview 2 weeks after release talking about how the film is rewriting box-office records both in India and abroad.

You can watch Baladoor if you are desperate for a Ravi Teja flick, and that is likely to be the cure for the desperation.