Rowdy Fellow Review

'Rowdy Fellow' is a film where nothing lasts for long.  Rana Pratap Jayadev (Nara Rohith) is the rich son of a rich father (and this father is never seen).  He is introduced as a self-styled freak with an easily-offended ego.  After a few moments of frivolity topped with style is done, the story gets into serious business, and it is now we see that there is an old-fashioned plot written underneath the gloss.  Describing 'Rowdy Fellow' as style over substance might actually be an understatement.

Rana Pratap gets into a tussle with Ahuthi Prasad (playing Superintendent of Police) on returning from US, and just to satisfy his sensitive ego, he pays a huge bribe and lands the job of a Sub-Inspector.  In the village where he is posted, he finds that all is not well and that the village's dark underbelly is entrenched deep.  A tight slap from an agonised woman wakes him from his slumber and callousness and in his journey, he has to fight the bad and ugly, something which he was never prepared to do.

Krishna Chaitanya's writing lacks coherence, in the sense that there are elements which did not need to be there or which needed to be leveraged wholly to lend a special charm to the script.  In the end, elements like a rich youngster with a history of reckless attitude finding his calling in a hamlet that has been under the vice-like grip of a habitual offender, are not played up.  The fight is taken to a new level in the run up to interval bang but from that point, there is a palpable drift.  The hero, all through, comes across as a rather indefatigable dude who is destined to win a game of which he behaves like an inadvertent player.  Finally, Rana Pratap doesn't have to face big obstacles on his path.  

At first, you have the hero arrive in a modish attire, create a scene at a discotheque, only to hit hard someone for hurting his ego three years ago, then go about jovially take a snap along with him.  From this, to have the hero take up the unfinished agenda of a journalist-crusader, the director surely needed a knack for a nuanced story-telling.  First things first, a genre like this did not get proper first scenes.  After unravelling the mysterious disappearance of a constable (played by Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao) there comes Gollapudi, and in the scene with him, the hero's character is seen displaying an insouciant attitude.  The film goes on to be told seldom as the hero's story.  He descends into a bit player at times, at least in our perception.

Rao Ramesh (playing politician-land grabber Durga Prasad) is the village's bete noire rather than his!  Rana Pratap can't take it if someone says to him 'orey' but that's how Durga Prasad addresses him as.  As for him, he addresses Durga Prasad as 'annayya'.  True, everyone need not be a Gabbar Singh but definitely elements like this make us wonder if the characterization went a bit haywire.  There is a palpable attempt to not overdo heroism but that ends up undoing the climax.

Biting more than what it can chew, the film packs too many ideas.  The Rip Van Winkle hero takes up the cause of low salaries for cops and institutes a Police Welfare Fund as the prescription.  There is a dose of revolutionary message at the end, never mind the fact that the film has ideas like the aforementioned one!

The writer does show flashes of intelligent writing here and there, though.  In brief time, the scenes like where Paruchuri and Gollapudi are seen make an impact.  There are good ideas scattered and they are few and far between.

Posani Krishna Murali as Silku plays the ever-so-awkward sidekick of the villain and who ultimately turns into the hero's ever-so-scared dummy.  Comedian Satya entertains.  Ajay in the role of a deaf baddie fits the bill.

Nara Rohit yet again shines in an almost tailor-made role.  He doesn't have to deliver punchlines or do impossible stunts.  He has to show his arrogant attitude calmly and that's all.  He has a good voice and a subtle comic timing (read 'Maa peda nanna CM' and 'Balakrishna garu chepinatu, Telugu vallam Telugu lo matladudam').  Rao Ramesh is menacing in the role of an exploitative hamlet-lord but one feels he should have got better lines.

Vishakha Singh of Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey looks gorgeous but her role slides into insignificance in the second half.  Hers is not a performance-oriented role either.

The cinematography Aravindan P. Gandhi is nifty.  Sunny MR's songs are lame but the RR is fine.

Verdict: 'Rowdy Fellow' is style over substance.

Rating: 2.25/5

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