Bhadra Review

For a man with no godfathers in the industry, no memorable performances and a diction problem, Ravi Teja has done pretty well for himself. His rugged earthy looks, his penchant for humor (give or take a little spontaneity) and his ability to sustain the exact TRAI-recommended-level stubble for the entire length of a movie have won him a mass following that seems to have no cure. Bhadra is another version of the kind of chug-a-lug entertainment that made Idiot and Amma Nanna O Tamil Ammayi worthy of a mention in conversations that are going nowhere.

The film starts with Bhadra (Ravi Teja) falling instantly in love with a woman whose photograph he's accidentally seen on a CD. His friends tell him it's a million-in-one shot since that's Salma Hayek, so he goes through the CD again, and this time accidentally lands upon the photograph of Anu (Meera Jasmine). She turns out to be the sister of his best friend Venu, and Bhadra's thrilled. It's not everyday that your best friend has a great-looking sister.

Anu is coming home from London, and Bhadra tags along with Venu to their village to stay with them for a bit and try his newly downloaded pick-up lines on her. However, she doesn't talk much, so he doesn't know whether they are working or not. There can be few things worse than not getting any feedback on your pick-up lines. One of them is being killed.

Bhadra makes powerful enemies when he gets in the path of the rivals of Anu and Venu's family in the faction-ridden village. They want to kill Anu's brother (Prakash Raj), who is an M. Tech. from BITS Pilani, and a rich and successful factionist himself. Cool - we wonder what the salary is for entry-level factionists from premier institutes these days.

Bhadra can't save Anu's family from getting wiped out in a savage attack despite his heroics, but he manages to rescue her from the gorefest and escape to Hyderabad with her. It takes the villians a lot of time to trace them since they work like a government department - if you want to be traced earlier, you have to pay a bribe. In the meantime, Anu is staying at Bhadra's home and having a lot of fun with his family there - her only worry is that she did not tell the milkman and the newspaper delivery boys that her family is dead and so they don't need to deliver anymore.

Well, the film predictably ends. It's fun in one half at least - the first half is less gory, and has all the comic stuff. Anu's is just a carry-the-water-bag part, and frankly the other woman courting Bhadra (called Satya in the film) looks far more heroine-material, even if she's just been bundled in for the glamor component. The comic track with Sunil is unfortunate.

The film fires completely from Ravi Teja's shoulders. He's matured into a fine actor, and while strong dialogue-delivery is still not a forte, he passes muster in most sequences, and looks firmly set to be in the top league very soon. In other performances, Prakash Raj does good, as usual. The music by Devi Sri Prasad is just about average.

On the whole, worth a watch, but it might be a good idea to keep the kids home, since there's too much heads flying.