'Nakshatram', starring Sundeep Kishan as the main lead, hits the screens today.  Here is our review.

Story:

The town's most emotional underdog Rama Rao (Sundeep Kishan) has but one dream in life.  He wants to become a cop and police the under-policed city, Hyderabad.  Jamuna (Regina Cassandra) is his lover girl, dreaming his dream.

On the D-day, though, Rama Rao hits a roadblock when the debauched son (Tanish in a sadistic role) of the City's Commissioner of Police avenges an old grudge.  He, therefore, fails to attend the SI exam.

In a nocturnal twist, powered by Raja Ravindra's philosophy of policing, Rama Rao turns into a Citizen Vigilante, colorless, ideology-less, casteless, creed-less.

But then, least does he know that he has accidentally come to own the identity of a missing cop - named Alexander (played by Sai Dharam Tej).

What now happens to Rama Rao's mission?  Who is Alexander and why is he missing?  What happens to Tanish and his team?  That is what the second half is about.

Analysis:

Losing the Midas Touch is one thing.  Losing the plot itself is another.  Krishna Vamsi has lost it.  Seriously.

Just two factors are enough to be a dampener:

1.  The villains keep on laughing sadistically all throughout.  And the good guys make sure they cry feverishly at the drop of a hat.   KV's characters have had this trait of being over-the-top at times.  But the moment their charming innocence is overdone, it gets on your nerves.  That's what happens here.

2.  The frames are surprisingly amateurish.  It's difficult to see this hard-sold thing called budget anywhere, except of course in a sultry number or two.

In all probability, KV conceived the plot line when bombs were ripping apart parts of India in the 2000s.  But that is the least of the film's problems.

What do you call a hero who seems to indulge in sexy songs and child-man comics with the heroine instead of finding the one who shattered his lifetime dream?  What is he waiting for?  An accidental finale with the one who demolished his career?

This feverish emotionalism, we tell you.  In the scene where Rama Rao is to be consoled, mother's quota and the lover girl's quota are separate.  And, of all, the mother is played by Tulasi.  Melodrama becomes affected melodrama, courtesy Tulasi-Regina duo.  The scariest mother-lover girl combo in the town.

Then, you have a scene where Prakash Raj, supposedly a cop with brains, tells the Home Minister (JD Chekravarthy in a forgettable role), who just reprimanded him for a fresh bomb blast, that the cops may be slow but they never fail.  A blast in the city is not proof of failure?

There are moments when you thank item songs for a reason.  It's because such songs exist that Alexander (Sai Dharam) was not allowed by KV to narrate his terrifying flashback visually.  If not for anything, KV deserves kudos for limiting the trail of destruction.  By the way, the special song features Shriya Saran, who is thankless and unwelcome.

When you are dealing with a subject as serious as an arms mafia causing blasts, the least you are expected to do is to show that it's not an easy job to execute blasts.  But even this much is not KV's concern.  In one counter-intuitive and ultra-pathological scene, trained cops run helter-skelter at the sight of a bomb, while the Home Minister is seen merrily breaking the protocol with all the possible bravery!

Tanish's character hardly has a sense of purpose.  A kingpin can be pathological, but should he be shown to have no rationality, drugged or not? Alexander resolves to end terrorism and that's all.  The tempo drops from that point once and for all.  Rama Rao talks English and walks English rather emotionally, crying standing at the closed gates of the police academy.  In the next scene, there is nothing to feel his emotions sustainably.  If Alexander is gutsy but not brainy, Rama Rao is inconsistently smart at best and a bumbling moron at worst.

Much before she fades into oblivion, Regina seeks a kiss from her boy in a half-baked emotional scene.  Imagine her as a lower middle-class girl who looks every bit as that high-class girl who just walked out of the city's best boutique.  Whoever dubbed for her, by the way, adds insult to injury.

It is Pragya Jaiswal (as SDT's lover-cop) who is the main female lead.  She is passable at best.  The hyped guest role of the Mega hero goes for a toss after the initial scenes.

Sundeep gets to play an intense character and he shows promise.  He is convincing in the role of a wronged, aspiring and helpless youngster.

Tanish is menacing enough. Prakash Raj is OK, while Shivaji Raja is his usual self.

The songs could have got proper justice with a sensible cinematography.

Verdict:

'Nakshatram' dishes out a half-baked plot, sans any tempo.  An outmoded story, the absence of a rational villain, intrusive songs, insensible cinematography are major minuses,

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