Bindaas Review

If you care a damn for major hiccups in story and screenplay, not to forget other technical aspects crucial for a film like cinematography, Bindaas would seem tolerable.  Veeru Potla's directorial debut is unexpectedly mediocre.  Given that the story writer has earlier lent excellent stories for films like 'Varsham' to 'Athadu' and 'Nuvvosthanante Nenoddantana', you feel surprised at the fact that he has selected a wafer thin line for his debut.

The film, one, follows from a weak premise, and two, proceeds with an equally routine narrative.  Routine, because we can predict well in advance what the hero with a scheming attitude (typical Sreenu Vaitla product) is going to do with the villains by entering into their house.  Here, you should not expect much entertainment, because Bindaas does not match any where to the quality and intelligence of the films it seems to have been inspired from.

To begin with, there is the murder of Seshadir Naidu's (Jayaprakash Reddy) bava, Jeeva, suspected to be at the hands of Mahendra Naidu's (Ahuthi Prasad) thugs.  Shakuntala, Jeeva's wife, seethes with anger, so also Jayaprakash, who vows to kill the family members of Ahuthi. In the city, Ajay (Manchu Manoj) is living a bindaas life on the college campus, when he is picked up by Ahuthi's (who is his uncle) men, to his native Chittoor.  The hero is hated by everyone in the household, but nothing deters Ajay from loving them and seeing them as his family.  He goes about playing pranks on Girija (Sheena), who falls in love with him sooner than later.  In the household, you have idiotic chaps like Vennela Kishore and Master Bharath, who go overboard in trying to make us laugh.  Before the interval bang, the blood-thirsty rivals try to catch hold of Bharath and Kishore, but Ajay thumps them out single-handedly.  However, he is thrown out of the house for putting the two's lives in risk.

If you hoped the second half would be any better, you are in for a bigger disappointment.  The proceedings are predictable, with the director never giving a damn to realise that the audiences have watched film after film with the same line.

Far from tickling our funny bone, the scenes test our patience.  Barring a few scenes, the film never seems up to the mark.  While Manoj repeats his acting, with the Nenu Meeku Telusa hangover deterring him, Sheena is below average.  Thankfully, the diminutive girl is not seen for more than twice in the second half.  For once, you don't complain about the decreasing importance given to heroines in our film.  This one is a blessing in disguise.

What were Raghu Babu, Sunil and MS doing?  Also, should Brahmandam be not felicitated for making us laugh even in badly-written scenes?

Performances of character artistes, ranging from Ahuthi, Jayaprakash to Subbaraju are adequate.  Music is just about okay.  Dialogue lack any intelligence and sound pale.

All in all, Bindaas is likable if you care a damn for your money's worth.  That's, wear a bindaas attitude and waste you hard-earned money.

Released on: 5th Feb, 2010