Megastar Chiranjeevi's second innings started with a bang - Khaidi No 150. His next venture is his long pending dream project of Uyyalavada Narasimha Reddy biopic. Under Surender Reddy direction with a huge cast & crew, Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy shaped up.
Story - Narasimha Reddy is one of the many palegars in Renadu region. Since childhood he wants to protest against British rule and atrocities. When the suppression of British increases and reaches flash point, Narasimha Reddy decides to revolt. Other Palegars don't join him in the revolution initially. How Narasimha gets support of other Palegars and people, how he wages war against British and how his life ends forms the rest of the story.
Performances - At the age of 64 and after a break of 9 years, What Megastar Chiranjeevi pulled off is unimaginable and unbelievable. Be it action stunts, emotional dialogues, he proves once again why he is still King of Tollywood. Jagapathi Babu and Kichha Sudeep stand out of the ensemble cast. Tamanna has a longer run time compared to Nayanatara, both were good in their roles. I personally loved Sai Chand's (Sai Pallavi father in Fida) short but effective performance.
Technicians - Ratnavelu is star of the technical team. Extraordinary visuals and shot making. Background score is very good. Amit Trivedi did an okay job as far songs are concerned. Title song is goosebumps stuff but 1st song and other background songs are not up to the mark. Action stunts were good during interval bang, war episodes. Editing could have been better in 1st half.
Positives -
Chiranjeevi performance
Interval episode
War episode
Climax
Negatives -
Lack of emotional connect
First 45 minutes of movie
Analysis -
My initial assumption and worry about Surender Reddy's capabilities to create goosebumps stuff and emotionally engaging episodes became true. Considering the availability of cast, crew, budget, premise, story on hand, Sye Raa has all the ingredients to become an unbreakable blockbuster. However, it falls short due to lack of emotional connect. War episodes are good but not to the extent it has been promoted as equivalent to the scale of Bahubali. For the efforts and acting brilliance of Megastar, this movie is worth watching. Not a repeat watch like Bahubali series, but definitely worth watching. There is only one Rajamouli, others just keep trying to reach 50% of his range.
Rating - 3/5 (Watch it for Megastar)
