Alluri Review

'Alluri' hit the screens this Friday. In this section, we are going to review the latest box office release.

Story:

Rama Raju (Sree Vishnu) is a sincere, fiery cop who joins the police department with a dream to herald a clean society. In Vizag, he locks horns with MP Sambasivudu and his powerful ally Kaali. After dealing with the menace with courage, Rama Raju gets promoted as CI. He eventually gets transferred to Hyderabad, where he has to confront a new set of anti-social elements. What are the challenges at hand? How does Rama Raju deal with unexpected scenarios? What does life have in store for him? Answers to these questions are found in the second half.

Analysis:

Writer-director Pradeep Varma, who also pens the film's story and screenplay, delivers a commercial cop action drama. In the initial portions, Rama Raju is shown as an exemplar in a small stretch involving a wannabe policeman and his father, played by Tanikella Bharani. The actual story is narrated as a flashback in several installments. This plot device soaks the audience into the world of Rama Raju and the individuals he crossed paths with over a period of about a decade. Suman plays DIG Kasi Viswanath, who gets a better part in the second half of the story.

'Alluri' was admittedly written over a period of a few years. The film is based on some true incidents but it doesn't mean that Rama Raju is a real character. He is a fictional character who becomes the vehicle for telling stories that happened because of and around several courageous cops. In one place, we see the statue of the legendary policeman Umesh Chandra, the slain IPS officer who is noted among SI aspirants.

Sree Vishnu approaches the role with sincerity. He looks macho and doesn't overdo the masculine attributes of his cop character. His scenes with Suman, Raja Ravindra (in a negative role) and Tanikella Bharani (in a two-dimensional role) are earnest because of his acting. Ravi Varma is seen as Kaali, who gets a formulaic role. Kayadu Lohar, who plays Rama Raju's housewife, looks good.

After doing with a lot of settings and situations (the story shifts from one city to another), 'Alluri' introduces a huge crisis and how the protagonist heroically tackles it makes for a decent final 20 minutes.

While Rama Raju is introduced as a trigger-happy cop, in the beginning, it turns out that he is empathetic. The track involving Maoists and him is a case in point. The film is aware of the debates around human rights and civil rights activism.

The action choreography could have been better. Harshavardhan Rameshwar's background music is decent, but the songs are found wanting. Raj Thota's cinematography is another area where the film needed better care.

On the flip side, the film could have done away with two hero-heroine songs that only lengthen the running time. Already, the film is about 169 minutes long.

Verdict:

'Alluri' derives its material from true events. Its situations are familiar, but the writing and execution try to make a difference.