Mind games between an idealistic cop and an intelligent ambitious businessman...

Story:

Dhruva (Ram Charan) is an idealistic IPS trainee whose goal is to keep track of the baddies and find the ultimate one in the organized crime hierarchy and punish him so that they can put a check on the number of criminal activities. He secretly forms a group with his IPS trainee batch-mates and goes out in the late hours to nab the baddies to stop the crimes in the city. During their routine night outs one day they come across a chain snatching batch who snatch chains in front of their eyes from an elderly couple who are going on a bike. In that scuffle baddies kill the old person who tries to fight back and resists to let go. In his investigating Dhruva finds out that chain snatching was just a deviation from the bigger crime.

Siddharth Abhimanyu (Arvind Swamy) is a scientist and one of the youngest entrepreneur to receive Padmasri award. His dad (Posani Krishnamurali) is a sitting MLA of the ruling party. Abhimanyu, with the support of his dad's political clout and his contacts with organized crime members manipulates many business deals to his favor. In one such deal manipulation he gets a jerk from Dhruva that triggers the conflict between them. Rest of the story is how each try to out smart the other to succeed.

Performances:

Charan & Arvind Swamy matched perfect to the T in the roles of an upright Police officer and a manipulative cruel businessman. Charan has improved tremendously in this movie. He worked really hard to tone down his body and improved on his body language to suit as a young IPS officer. Slight make over with short hair, mustache and appropriate costumes worked out perfectly to suit the character. After Magadheera, Dhruva is the only movie that suited him perfectly and acted without any discomfort. Charan's voice is an asset for him. His dialog diction and fights were awesome. His hard work has finally paid off. Arvind Swamy is excellent as a stylish villain. Confrontation scenes between him and Charan worked out really good. Arvind Swamy was a heartthrob during his initial movies, Roja, Mumbai etc. To accept him in a villain role is a real challenge for both telugu audience and the director. But believe me, after watching the movie and his performance, I cannot imagine any other person in telugu than Arvind Swamy in that role. Rakul Preet acted as a love interest for Charan in this movie and provided enough glamor content. Posani did an important role as an innocent politician who simply follows the instructions of his son. Navdeep acted as a colleague to Charan in a small but important role. In other filling roles we see Nassar, Shayaji Shinde etc.

Behind The Screen:

This is a remake of tamil hit, Thani Oruvan. Yes, I've watched the original long back and still liked the telugu version too. Director Surender Reddy took tamil original story by Mohan Raja and most part of the screenplay as is and added his technical flavor to make it a stylish action thriller in telugu. It's a big challenge for director when working on a remake. He did not deviate much from the original and yet added his flavor and the needed telugu commerciality to this movie. Excellent photography by P.S. Vinod, good dialogs by Vema Reddy (hearing his name for the first time), Naveen's crisp editing, good BGM by Hip Hop Tamizh and taking by Surender Reddy made it a stylish flick. When I first heard the songs this morning... they were so so but on screen they were better. Most of the songs had good pallavi part... but rest of the charanams were ________ (filling in the blanks with the words of your choice ;-) ). I missed the action composer's name... whoever it is... they have composed excellent fights. I liked the one when Charan tries to save one of his friends. Production values are excellent from the Geetha Arts & producer N.V. Prasad.

Commercial Analysis:

First 15 minutes was bit slow as director took some time to introduce the characters and their traits. Once the main conflict starts movie runs at pace. It's after the introduction of Arvind Swamy movie picks up the tempo. Second half of the movie has racy screenplay and keeps the audience engaged. First time watchers will definitely like the movie for it's story, screenplay and performances. Those who have already watched the tamil version may start comparing the versions... still will not be disappointed. There is no commercial comedy track... keep that in mind before watching. It's an out and out stylish thriller action movie.

Rating: 3.5/5

- Raghu Chitturi