Pradeep Chilkuri’s Raja Cheyyi Vesthe (2016) Movie Review

Pradeep Chilkuri’s Raja Cheyyi Vesthe (2016) Movie Review

Movie Review: Raja Cheyyi Vesthe
Cast: Nandamuri Tarakratna, Isha Talwar, Nara Rohit,
Directed by Pradeep Chilkuri
Produced by Varahi Chalana Chitram
Music by Sai Karthik
Cinematography by Sarvesh Murari
Censor Certificate: UA & Runtime: 140+ Minutes

I had a lot of hope for this one. Who doesn’t want to see Nandamuri Tarakratna as the hardened goon as “Manik” blow his way through everything and end up blowing the protagonist as well while in the background everything is bloodshed thanks to his very violent characterization.

Let me regale the storyline of the movie first. At the very small age, Chaitra (Isha Talwar) and Chakri (Srinivas Avasarala)’s father (Rajeev Kanakala) gets mistakenly killed by minacious Manik (Tarakratna). From that age Chaitra and Chakri have got a single mission in their lives. That is to kill ruthless goon Manik. As the time passes by Chaitra falls in love with her neighbor an aspiring film director Raja (Nara Rohit). And asks him to finish her unfinished business with Manik. As it turns out, Raja Cheyyi Vesthe is a conventional battle between good and evil (“Manik” and “Raja”), cat and mouse game in which Raja is always one step ahead of Manik all the time.

Performance by Nandamuri Tarakratna has been a heavy weight in this movie. He literally carried the entire movie on his shoulders. He is an unusual villain, who does shout loud, kill ruthlessly, but his chilling gesture in few sequences speak volumes. For Nara Rohit, this is one of his best intensely portrayed characterization after Rowdy Fellow and undoubtedly he pulled it off decently with the right balance of emotions. Isha Talwar, being a talented artist, has done a neat job. Rajeev Kanakala, Shivaji Raja, Sashank, Raghu, Srinivas Avasarala, Chandu, Josh Ravi are fine in their limited roles.

Raja Cheyyi Vesthe has been in the making for quite a while, but the story that it tells is one that has stood the test of time. It also proves to be its untying, since RCV narrated a plot that you are quite familiar with, and has few eye openers in the store. The inspiration from the Telugu Athannokkade (2005) is quite obvious, though a few efforts have been made to make the inspiration as oblivious as possible. But the basic thematic tone of the film remains pretty much the same. The movie even has few inspired sequences from Jigarthanda , Victory and Oosaravelli.

Raja Cheyyi Vesthe might have had the potential to be an interesting film, despite its main idea having been inspired one. The film is never able to retain its appeal for a considerably long time, and it picks up once in a while and sags even faster. The writing is disappointing, which makes “Raja Cheyyi Vesthe” a dumpster fire with very few smolders in it. And there is not much dramatic content to be recounted in it, which is why RCV appears to be movie that has all bones and no flesh or heart.

The director failed in sketching the characters perfectly which he started off with. He even leaves out logics in the second half, like; (Spoilers ahead) first and foremost, There is no proper explanation regarding; how Nara Rohit planned the final attack on Tarakratna, when everything was going against his plans.  Even the romantic script point was not properly conceived by the maker, instead, he could have tried to establish the pain of the heroine through the narrator’s point of view. The most funniest part of the film is antagonist finding his killers through his groupfies.

The cinematography doesn’t give you anything extraordinary to mention, even the framing is pretty amateurish right from the very first sequence at vegetable market. Music for this movie has been composed by Sai Karthik who has done a damn average job and the only hummable songs are the ones that have been inspired by Meri Brother Ki Dulhan and Ilayaraja’s tunes. Background Score has been given in a pure melodramatic way keeping 1980’s sound design in mind. Editing could have applied his scissors sharply in the second half. Dialogues by Sudheer Chilkuri works in parts. Makers Varahi Chalana Chitra made sure that the film has rich visuals.

As it turns out, Raja Cheyyi Vesthe gets completely derailed from its tracks, or rather, there were no tracks to even begin with. With an almost nonexistent story this film shows why you shouldn’t further stretch an already creatively-exhausted point. RCV aspired to be quite a lot of things at once, and sets its eyes on being a thriller, a romantic – comedy and even an action caper at times. It successfully ends up being none of these, and could at best be considered a tremendously lethargic flick that quite leisurely takes its time for letting things fall into place. All in all, Raja Cheyyi Vesthe – yet another weak film from Nara Rohit.

Survi Review: 1/5