Starring: Kartikeya ,Tanya Ravichandran,Sudhakar Komakula, Pasupathy, Tanikella Bharani and others
Director: Sri Saripalli
Producer: ‘88’ Ramareddy
Music Director: Prashanth.R. Vihari
Cinematography: P.C.Mouli
Editor: Jeswin Prabhu
Young hero Kartikeya Gummakonda’s Raja Vikramarka has been released in cinemas worldwide after a good round of promotions. The film is carrying a decent buzz as it is titled after Chiranjeevi’s yesteryear classic. With Chiru himself wishing Raja Vikramarka’s team a day before the film’s release, the expectations around the film have reached the next level. Let’s see how the film is.
Story:
Raja Vikramarka (Kartikeya) is an NIA agent who works under his boss Tanikella Bharani. As part of a secret mission, he disguises himself as an insurance policy agent. He falls in love with Kanthi (Tanya Ravichandran), the daughter of a sincere Home Minister (Saikumar). After turning down Raja’s romantic advances initially, Kanthi falls in love with him.
The twist in the tale arises when an anti-social element named Guru Narayan (Pasupathy), who wakes up from a coma after 14 years, enters the scene to take revenge on the Home Minister. What are Guru and Home Minister’s back story? How does Kanthi get entangled in the conflict? Will Raja Vikramarka manage to save her and Home Minister’s life? You need to watch the movie to know the rest.
Plus Points:
Kartikeya developed a solid physique to look apt as an NIA agent and also performs decently in the given role. He displays flamboyance and aggression in equal measure. Newcomer Tanya Ravichandran looks pretty and makes an impressive debut. Life Is Beautiful fame Sudhakar Komakula is decent in a cop’s role that gains significance in the second half. Saikumar plays a sincere Home Minister with utmost sincerity, as usual. Senior character artiste Tanikella Bharani evokes some laughs with his punchlines. Harshavardhan, too, does well as a gullible insurance policy agent. The rest of the actors did their job well.
Minus Points:
Simplistic narration, especially in the first half, is the major minus in Raja Vikramarka. Until the minor interval twist, there’s hardly any high point in the first half. Adding to this, Kartikeya’s wafer-thin characterization makes us wonder if we are actually watching a taut thriller set in the NIA backdrop or a regular Telugu film. In fact, at one point, the heroine asks the hero if he was really an NIA agent. Well, audiences will have the same feeling too. Also, the way heroine Tanya falls in love with Kartikeya is not convincing and such moments are seen in numerous movies in the past.
Apart from the simplistic narration, predictability is yet another minus in Raja Vikramarka. Soon after the twist involving Sudhakar Komakula is revealed, there’s hardly anything exciting happening on the screen. Even the ending is wrapped up on predictable lines. The main conflict between Home Minister and Guru Narayan is not established well when the entire second half is based on Guru’s revenge.
Technical Aspects:
Debut writer-director Sri Saripalli impresses with his one-liners penned for Kartikeya and Tanikella. He must also be appreciated for choosing a different thriller with an NIA backdrop for his debut. However, he should have come up with a far more engaging narrative laced with convincing characterizations and taut drama. Unfortunately, he chooses a routine template to drive his story which has been done to death in Telugu Cinema.
The cinematography is quite good. The chase and action scenes have been shot realistically. Editing, while deserves a lot of fine-tuning in the first half, is decent and sticks to the narrative in the latter half. While the songs are decent, the background score stands out. The production values are quite decent for the story and its scale.
Verdict:
On the whole, after showing much promise with its striking trailer and whirlwind promotions, Raja Vikramarka ends up as an okayish thriller. While there is a lack of seriousness in the proceedings, especially in the first half, the second half, after showing some promise following the interval twist, doesn’t quite succeed in piquing audiences’ interest with a predictable narration that offers nothing new, making the film look like a regular Telugu film. You may watch the movie this weekend for Kartikeya and some well-conceived action sequences.
