Yevadu Review

Before we begin with the review, we have to ask the makers one thing: is there a black market out there for ID-less hospital runaways? Our hero, the same day as he wakes up from a 10-month coma after a complex plastic surgery (Note to commenters: No need to get violent. This is not a spoiler. It's just how the movie pretty much begins), which presumably leave all his IDs invalid even if he had them, manages to procure a kickass looking sports bike, a camera whose price must be over 60 grand, a jacket we put at around 20k, and a cool new pair of Aviator shades; all with nothing on him but the clothes with which he was admitted into the hospital.

You need to make this kinda thing public knowledge. It is simply not fair to the millions of others in similar situations who have to do tedious things like wait for families to show up, go through official channels to have their IDs changed before they can get their hands on their resources, and... well, stuff... (We don't feel competent to add more, and invite those who've had a new face put on theirs to give us more examples.)

Also, why was he still in the same filthy clothes as when he was brought in? He probably shoulda been in a blue hospital nighti... oh, wait. Sorry, it was stupid of us to assume that logic even has a place in the face of our hero's all-encompassing manliness.

There, now that we've gotten a step ahead in having our burning curiosity satisfied, we can get on with telling you how you'll like Yevadu. And, to be honest, you will like it, insofar as you can like a movie with a severe case of identity crisis. After all it's a film based on the premise that nobody knows who's who. The film itself can't make up its mind whether it wants to be Chirutha or Vikramarkudu or Pokiri or..., the list of its "other"-s is too long.

The personalities aside, it's actually pretty fun the way Paidipally (the director) has made them all work together. He doesn't bother working with clever repartee. He just dives head on into the story. In fact, each of the sentences uttered in the film contains not more than four words, and is designed solely for the amplification of grandstanding.

The story is this. Deepa-Sathya (Kajal Aggarwal - Allu Arjun) are a young, bright and shiny couple with their whole lives ahead of them, until the moment Deepa catches the eye of Dheeru Bhai (Rahul Dev), Vishakapatnam's laughably libido-ridden don. Long 15 minutes short, the couple's future burns down to cold ashes in the face of the bhai's testosterone-y rage, and all that is left of it is Satya, face burnt beyond recognition, but with his will to live intact.

Half a minute later, he's in Apollo Hospital Hyderabad, getting a makeover by an apparently demented Jayasudha. Ten minutes later, he's run away from the hospital, made his way back to Visakhapatnam, and somehow managed to procure all the goon-hunting equipment mentioned above. Also, lest we forget to mention it, Sathya is now Ram (Ram Charan Tej), much to the chagrin of our still-under-recovery tympanums (or is it tympani?).

Imagine our surprise, then, that within an hour of the movie beginning, Dheeru Bhai and his posse is dead meat. No, really, what the hell is our vengeful hero to do, now that there's no more venging to be fulled?

Our perplexity lasted only until a random gang starts shooted at Ram, which he demolishes, utterly. We knew then that we should have had more faith in our monoliths and their ability to play with our credulity like it were putty. And so should you.

Ram Charan Tej puts up a valiant effort at acting, and falls just shy of the actual deed. He does brood appropriately, so that's good. Then, too, of course, he dances as well as he fights, both of them pretty well. Also backing him up are the utterly clumsy references to his family, lest his fans forget for even a second the seed from which this Cherry (heh) has sprung forth.

The girls are all lovely, but are pretty much relegated to being villain-bait. It's Ram Charan Tej and the villains who have the most to do, and the villains at least are having a good time.

The cinematography is okay, but the editing could've been snappier. Seriously, if all the slo-mo scenes had been real-timed, the movie would've ended an hour earlier. The music, you've probably already danced to at a club or a wedding, so you know it's all catchy if not transcendental.

All in all, you know what to expect from your stars - a fun couple of hours where your logic can go to sleep. And that you have in Yevadu.