Rough Review

For all the apparent formulaic quality about the peculiarly-titled ‘Rough’, the film has its witty moments.  It is definitely not staid if it is unpredictable.  It is not dull if two characters are engaged in a battle of wits.  It is not routine if every character knows who the heroine is in love with except she herself!

The film begins like an outdated run-of-the-mill flick.  Chandu (Aadi) is an orphan who strongly believes that a boy has to consummate his love into marriage, otherwise he deserves to be taught a lesson.  He grows up to be a love patriot, a day after he talks of that special one he never met, he bumps into Nandini (Rakul Preet Singh).  The girl shares his love patriotism, but there is a fix.  Her multi-millionaire brother (Sri Hari as Siddharth in this posthumous release) is a strong believer in elders-ordained marriages.  So, Chandu walks up to Siddharth, lets him know that he is going to make his sister fall in love with him and dares him to stop if he can if he doesn’t like it.

Siddharth is caught in a pincer because he fears that alerting Nandini about Chandu might have the unintended consequence of the sister developing interest and eventually love for Chandu.  Least does Siddharth imagine that Chandu has already started planning his next clever move.

More than the performances, the film is built on the foundations of a good script.  Aadi delivers a confident acting output yes, but he is unidimensional.   Rakul Preet Singh comes with a starry grace and despite the role not being author-backed, makes an impact because of her beauty.  On the other hand, Sri Hari serves to lend a dose of seriousness to the proceedings from word go by looking more than disturbed every time Aadi calls  him up to brief him about mostly fictitious happenings around Nandini.

All said, the film’s formulaic nature becomes obvious in the second half.  There comes a point when it ceases to seem curious.  Mani Sharma’s music serves to project CH Subba Reddy’s visualization of songs as boisterous and massy.  An inevitable consequence of this is that Aadi keeps on dancing and dancing (just as he keeps on smiling and smiling in scenes), even in a melodious number like Ee Vennela Bommani.

If most of the comedy is situational, the comedy involving Raghu Babu and Aadi is intelligent.  One wishes the scenes leveraged the presence of the able comedians, Prithvi Raj and Raghu Kunche.

It is to the credit of the script-writer that earnestness is not sacrificed at the altar of comedy.  In the hands of a bad director, Sri Hari would have been made to do inappropriate comedy.  Instead, the comedy quotient is sought to be served through Sri Hari’s PA (played by Shiva Reddy).  Even a scene like where Ajay, Tanikella Bharani and Krishna Bhagawan  come to Sri Hari’s home for bride-seeing doesn’t play to the gallery.

The action sequences are not up-to-the-mark.  Aadi shows energy and verve and that’s all about them.

This may go down as an under-rated movie for whatever reasons, but this one surely will have a long shelf life.

Verdict: An entertainer with some unpredictable and witty moments.

Rating: 2.25/5

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