Kedi Review

It has someone like Nagarjuna in the lead.  On technical standards, it scores well.  There is a producer who gives his best in ensuring that the film turns out to be a product that boasts of good technical-production values.  But, nothing stops Kedi from becoming the first big ticket disaster of this year.  You will be surprised to find the film worse than an average soap on your favourite channel, targeted for the urban youths.  To be fair to Kiran, the director sticks to his roots.  He makes an episodic caper littered with two or three excruciating duets.  To know how a top hero looks in a serial, watch this one.  It is being played out on the big screen.

To begin with, the story revolves around three characters - Ramesh (Nagarjuna), a vigorous kedi on the run, Shekar Rameshsetty (Sayaji Shinde), the Assistance Commisioner of Police and Chandra (Ankur Vikal), a gangster of sorts in Goa.  The film begins with Shekar catching hold of Rummy, as Nag calls himself, when the top cop begins grilling him forcing him to confess the misdeeds he has committed all along.  Nag begins his story, which began in Guntur, way back when he was in his early teens, reached Goa and is now settled in Hyderabad.

He first gets our sympathies when he tells he was harassed by his father (Tanikella Bharani, in just one scene) for spending money to buy a cricket bat.  He becomes a romantic in our eyes when he, even in his early teens, sweeps Janaki off her feet in the town and the twosome serenade to Rela Re.. Rela Re.  When Janaki's father discovers their affair, there ensues a violent fight between the two families.  The guy, who has come a long way from those days and has now become a big-time thief, narrates the death of his beloved sister in the skirmish, with a sense of outrageous detachment.

He moves on to narrate that he has always earned a living by hoodwinking others.  Be it making fool of a police inspector or robbing a BMW, he is a massive success.  In Goa, he joins hands with the menacing Chandu, who has no sense of scruples.  Rummy is assigned the task of collecting the delivery of RDX from the port, when he is caught by the police.

Why is Rummy trying hard to get back the 25 kilos of RDX he has sold off for a crore?  Will he ever meet Janaki?  Will he become the human being he has never been?  The answers to these questions are answered in the second half.

In years, Nagajuna has never been seen in a badly-written film as this one.  Though the characters are a bit intelligently written, the screenplay falters.  The audience cry for help when Rummy keeps on robbing through the film, with the story never taking a start, but for once when the true identity of his pseudo-wife (Mamatha) is revealed.

Dialogue just scuttle the narrative.  In a film like this, they should have carried it forward.  In a long time, there hasn't been a chasing scene so ridiculously pictured as this one.  Episodes like that of Rummy freeing a foreign tourist from the clutches of a drug mafia are poor.  The film seems unbearably lengthy, though there is no justification for such a length.

Performance-wise, Nag and Ankur are apt.  Mamatha is just about okay.  Sayaji makes his diction obvious, which becomes a minus.  Songs are thrust into the movie.

The film is more-than-aptly titled as Kedi, as it is a true thief that robs us of our peace.

Released on: 12th Feb, 2010