'Touch Chesi Chudu', starring Ravi Teja, Raashi Khanna, Freddy Daruwala, Seerat Kapoor, Murali Sharma and others, hit the screens on Friday.  Here is our review.

Story:

Karthik (Ravi Teja) is a thorough-going family man working for a company.  His lectures on the importance of one's family can border on the inane.  A doting father (Jayaprakash), an equally doting mother, a funny grandma (Annapurnamma as a maker of worst food) and two sisters complete his family.

One fine day, amidst wooing and being wooed by Pushpa (Raashi Khanna), Karthik realizes that one dreaded rowdy named Irfan (Freddy Daruwala), who he had thought is long dead, is very much alive.

Cut to a few years back, Karthik was a cop.  Welcome to the world of Karthik, IPS, a fiercely duty-minded ACP who is a law-unto-himself.  He would close all the cases at a remarkable speed, even if it took him to deliver jungle justice.

The second half is about what led to the ACP's rivalry with Irfan, why he had to leave his cop's job, and how he finally seals Irfan's fate once and for all.

Analysis:

When you want to show a sitting Member of Parliament fearing a cop so much that he decides to make the world believe his son (whose lifetime dream is to be an MLA) is dead, the heroism has to possess the intensity and madness of the  'Vikramarkudu' cop, if not that of the 'Simhadri' vigilante.  Instead, Ravi Teja's Karthik actually speaks in a run-of-the-mill language, and Deepak Raj's screenplay complacently comes up with stock ideas.

There is no excitement when the hero challenges the political musclemen in their own 'adda'.  If anything, there is only incredibly bland dialogue by Diamond Ratnababu.  In one of those crucial scenes in the second half, our hero actually says he is like global warming.  He might have gone on to say, 'Be the climate change you want to see in the world', paraphrasing a Mahatma Gandhi quote.  Thank God he didn't.

Every powerful villain in the film seems to be condemned to take either 'gaalis' or bullets from the hero.  In another incredibly 'Dry Fruit' moment, our ACP hero calls the Home Minister 'Verri Cabbage'.  A day may come when a Telugu cinema hero will storm the White House and call the President 'Picchi Pineapple', 'Bongulo Banana' and the like.  You never know...

One fine day, the hero forgets he is scheduled to marry Seerat Kapoor (who gets to play an ill-written role).  She calls it quits, only to lead dad Jayaprakash to do a tear-jerker.  A few scenes later, he does another one.  From Ajay (as a bad cop) and Suhasini Maniratnam (she has a boring cameo) to Jeeva (a Maulana), they are all cardboard characters.

A good part of the first half is in a rom-com mode.  The hero's gaffes while trying hard to impress the potential fiance Pushpa (Raashi) are funny.  These scenes are fairly engaging, helped by the comic timing of the pair.  Sathyam Rajesh doesn't add much value in these portions, so also all those family members.  Gundu Sudarshan has an okayish role.

Otherwise, even where the narration is inconsistently racy, the tempo goes missing.  After a well-etched role in 'Raja The Great', Ravi Teja gets to play a hero who is failed by those weak villains.  Acting-wise, however, he is convincing for the most part.  Lack of many dialogues affects Freddy's performance. It's hard for other villains to register themselves.  Vennela Kishore plays one of the most forgettable roles, while Sayaji Shinde as a top cop is wasted.  The family members overstay their welcome.

Pritam's JAM8 compose the songs and their output is uneven.  Mani Sharma's background music passes muster.  Chota K Naidu and Richard Prasad's cinematography has its share of hit and misses.

Verdict:

'Touch Chesi Chudu' is a deadly combination of an outdated story and insipid heroism.  Some comic doses work here and there.  Ravi Teja is good.  The songs are underwhelming.

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