Satyadeva’s Lion (2015) Movie Review

Satyadeva’s Lion (2015) Movie Review

Film Review: Lion
Star Cast: Nandamuri Balakrishna, Radhika Apte, Trisha Krishnan, Archana, Ali, Adithya Menon, Chalapathi Rao, Jayasudha, Geetha, M S Narayana, Geetha & Ravi Prakash
Music Director: Mani Sharma
Story – Screenplay – Dialogues: Satyadev
Cinematography: Venkat R Prasad
Censor Certificate: A
Runtime: 159 Minutes

A sincere CBI officer Bose (Nandamuri Balakrishna) gets appointed to Hyderabad CBI branch and he raids a big shot even before taking the official charge as CBI official. Seeing his effort, Prasad (Suresh) appoints him as an investigative officer for Ex-chief minister’s murder. Within a small span, Bose gets to know the secret behind the sudden death of Chief Minister. Present Chief Minister Bharadwaj (Prakash Raaj) taking things seriously, injuries Bose and makes him live in coma for 15 odd months. Accidently, Bose recovers from the coma and finds his identity being compromised & he leaves to Hyderabad searching for his true identity. Who is Godse? What’s Bharadwaj’s issue with Bose? Will Bose remember his past? Who is Saruyu (Radhika Apte)? The rest of the story is all about how he retraces his past and saves his family from Bharadwaj’s goons.

After tremendous success of Legend, Balakrishna Nandamuri unleashes an earnest performance, but it is barely challenging role for an actor to display his acting talents. His both the characters lack any real depth or challenges. Radhika Apte has nothing much to do and Trisha hams it up with some comic scenes. Both the actresses fail to match the tempo and runniness of Balakrishna and together they were not upto the mark. Prakash Raaj have been wasted. Nothing could be specially written about Adithya Menon or Ravi Varma who look monotonous.  M S Narayana, Posani Krishna Murali & Ali overact in their respective roles. Suresh, Geetha, Jayasudha, Chalapathi Rao have very little to do in this film. Indraja hardly have few scenes in the film.

The story of the film is around 20 years old and most of the sequences are not only predictable but have been seen in no. of films earlier. Besides the lack of fresh elements the movie hauls on quite a few occasions. The film starts of well. The proceedings of the first 15 minutes look interesting. But then the narration becomes predictable and boredom is sure to set in for the viewers. Satyadeva’s script is thoroughly unconvincing and it lacks a definite focus. As a director he hasn’t succeeded in packaging the movie in attractive manner either.

Director Satyadeva (Protégé of Dasari Narayana Rao) once again proves that many producers in the Telugu film Industry still carry illusion of hits for mass based commercial films. With a rather hotchpotch script and direction this looks like way old style of Telugu dramas. The effort is to nauseate a mass entertainer of that genre but this one lacks much fizz. There are desperate efforts to give a realistic mood to the situations and when everything starts failing, the hero resorts to monologues to reveal his feeling to audience. As its mandatory in formulaic films in Telugu, chastities are added in abundance to the protagonist that becomes pretty too heavy after a while for him to handle, considering the rather ineffective way the character has been molded.

Evidently in an effort to make it contemporary, the director leaves out lot of logics in the film. **Spoilers** CBI official rides and arrests a big shot before the lead takes his charge after transfer. When Jayasudha & Chandra Mohan planning to fake Godse’s identity, why the heck did they bring the original ATM card and make him doubt further. When Indraja can edit the status of an officer on duty, why Prakash Raaj didn’t thought the same and instead he forces the family of Bose to sign in the documents for voluntary retirement, etc… Writer Satyadev has written an illogical script for the film that has unbelievable sequences. Venkat R Prasad’s visuals are fine but Mani Sharma’s music is surprisingly naïve. The background score is not upto the mark. The fight sequences were over the top (like Helicopter catching the flying person, kidnapping CM from running vehicles, even inspired a fight sequence from Hollywood’s Walking Tall etc.. ), with too much usage of rope work. Dialogues are good in parts. The VFX done in the film appear pretty artificial. The Production values of SLV Cinemas are appropriate.

Lion is poor in content, visual and music made very much like an amateurish product. Natasimha Balakrishna has clearly blundered in giving away the responsibility of directing a mass entertainer to director Satyadeva who doesn’t seem to exscind for the task. Lion has its fanzy moments, but you get the feeling that the Telugu audience have been taken for granted by the makers here. It is hard not to be thwarted by this one!

Survi Review: 1.5/5