Evadaithe Nakenti Review

"Nanne kodathava? Maa naanna evaro telusa?"
"Velli mee ammani adagara!"

That should more or less give you a flavor for Evadaithe Nakenti. Pummelling dialogues that operate between launching you into orbit and ravaging your conscience, fight-a-thons that overwhelm their own sound effects, and an overall unflinching political thriller that provides a window into the heyday of Rajasekhar.

Rajasekhar was quoted saying that Evadaithe Nakenti might inspire more youth to join politics. While it's common for cast and crew to crow about how their next film will change the world forever, this claim might not be too off the mark. Evadaithe Nakenti is almost a film made with a purpose - it still can't lay its hands off Mumaith Khan - and it almost delivers.

Surya (Rajasekhar) is a Major of the Indian Army on a holiday to home. His father, Bal Gangadhar (Raghuvaran), is the education minister of the state, and with the normal ethics of a minister - he teams up with the poisonous DNK (Kalabhavan Mani) to loot the entire state. He doesn't feel bad about it - not everybody can loot the entire country, and he is content doing his small bit.

Surya is righteous to a fault, and makes rivals of his own father and brothers-in-law (IAS/IPS officers) with his efforts to protect the rights of the poor in his father's constituency. He keeps getting hi-profile with his efforts, and eventually ends up contesting the polls as an independent against his own father when he finds that the latter is involved in a murder. He wins by a huge majority, and when his support becomes the key to a party getting a majority, he negotiates for himself the home ministry.

Each one of us dreams of a day when honest and hot-blooded people become our rulers, and evil and corruption are brutally crushed. That is what makes Evadaithe Nakenti enjoyable in its second half. The hero has actually become the home minister, and as he goes about reforming the police department, empowering the cops and throwing everyone from small-time eve-teasers to the kin of MLAs in jail, it's a scream.

The film also lets you relish this dream for a while, without constantly worrying you with scenes of powerful and crafty villians continuously getting Surya into trouble. Most of us could watch a film for 5 hours if it showed a man successfully cleaning up the filth in society without facing powerful resistance - there's so much demand for that, and there's always going to be zero supply in real life. Most movie directors somehow feel compelled to have a menacing villian, create an almost impossible situation for the hero, and show him battle his way out in a climax with lavish mounting. Who cares? Your script may look meaningful, but we want to savor it when our hero fights our favorite enemy - corruption and the system. And we want his victory to be facile and crushing.

The choice of heroine in Samvrita is good - she's not glamorous enough to make your attention deviate. Mumaith Khan is a police officer, and should have never been in the film since she is primarily used for what Samvrita doesn't do. Saikumar dubs for Rajasekhar after a long time, and it's always a good combination.

The dialogues in this one are credited to Rajasekhar. That's a commendable effort - it's the lines in this one that make most of the difference. After a really long while, it does appear like Rajasekhar has a success.