'Dear Comrade' is heading for a humiliating flop at the box-office. Only its Day 1 collections were very good. The film failed the Monday test and plummetted further on Tuesday.

After 'NOTA', this is quite a sorry film for Vijay Deverakonda. Everything had fallen in place for the film: from Justin Prabhakaran's winsome tunes and Bharat Kamma's fairly gripping story to Rashmika Mandanna's presence.

But some grave mistakes were made both in writing and execution. Since the script was developed over two years, VD's image was over-indulged. It seems the characterization was altered to suit the 'Arjun Reddy' image. The makers went in for a lengthy run-time even though it was not needed. Since the songs were coming out well, they wanted to have as many as possible. The marriage song in the second half was not needed but they infused it, that too at the cost of nativity. 'Gira Gira' doesn't' add much to the narration. Nobody cares for old-style student politics but that's what the film shows rather pompously. The dialogues are bland. The comedy quotient is poor (not that comedy has to be there but didn't the makers try to make us laugh in some scenes?). This is an unpopular opinion but the climax is way too theatrical.

Deverakonda might now learn that he shouldn't let himself be over-indulged. Not every film is an 'Arjun Reddy'. This is just the first of the lessons. Rest depends on whether or not he stumbles upon substantial scripts, which is not entirely in his hands.