Maruthi Dasari’s Babu Bangaram (2016) Movie Review

Maruthi Dasari’s Babu Bangaram (2016) Movie Review
Starcast: Venkatesh Daggubati, Nayanthara, Sampath Raj, Murali Sharma, Posani Krishna Murali, Vennela Kishore, Prudhvi Raj, Chitram Seenu, Sonam Bajwa and Brahmaji.
Written by Darling Swamy
Direction: Maruthi Dasari
Music Composed: Ghibran
Edited by S B Uddav
Cinematography by Richard Prasad
Produced by Sitara Entertainments

Censor Certificate: UA & Runtime: 150 Minutes

First things first, I confess being a huge Venkatesh fan right from my early years and therefore was more excited than anyone else to watch Babu Bangaram featuring ”Victory” Venkatesh once again in the (funny) cop role. But sadly the attempt remains a visibly svelte product only having weak affiliations in the narrative which don’t really give you a commercial fun cop kind of entertainment on the whole. Still it cannot be called a worst film for sure because it does have decent acting as a savior.

A commiserative Venkatesh Daggubati plays a role of sincere cop, ACP Krishna, who is sent under along with few constables. While doing surveillance on KLN Sastry (Jayaprakash), accidentally Krishna falls in love with Shailaja (Nayanthara). While he tries to help her in clearing personal issues, she gets to know the truth that he’s a cop and is about to drag her father to prison. The rest of the story is all about how Krishna gets hold of Sastry and learns fact about the crime done by MLA Puchappa (Posani Krishna Murali) and Mallesh Yadav (Sampath Raj).

In damn straight words, the film has nothing new to offer in terms of content or plot-line. It’s unofficially inspired from Nirnayam (1991) and is all about an honest cop fighting against evil don and his empire based on strong political connections. Director even recycles his successful Bhale Bhale Mogadivoi themed narration into Babu Bangaram (even oneliners & songs from Venkatesh superhit films) to add some extra flavor into the film and nothing else. Hence this time Maruthi is not well equipped with many enjoyable peaks in his script and the film keeps moving at monotonous pace without major twists or funny episodes shattering all the reputation built by the director’s earlier film Bhale Bhale Mogadivoi. For instance, Prudhvi falls into the trap of Venkatesh as Policemen were able to find Sugarcane crusher as fake money printer at his place, there is a love affair track going along with the venkatesh’s fight which has no value, Even Jabardasth Chandra enters to dance to a unnecessary folk number, Suddenly Sukumar’s Nannaku Prematho spoof is done by Prudhvi to bring in some emotional-fun moments, which adds no value to the script, as usual there is a deliberately created comedy track around Mangamma (Bhramanandam), Bathakai bobji (Prudhvi), which generates some laughs in the starting few seconds but later on becomes annoying. And as seen before, there exists the same eccentric kind of villain with love for music (Similar to Villain character in Khatarnak) and a politician working against the cop, whose dialogues become galling from the start, played by Sampath Raj & Posani Krishna Murali. The action isn’t any step ahead and neither are the dialogues which formed background for BBM as everyone strongly remembers. Moreover both the cinematography (Richard Prasad) and background score (Ghibran) continuously give you an impression of “Deja Vu” with nothing fresh or path breaking. Songs work as filler with nothing worth listening. Moreover the BGM is both effective as well as noisy at times with excess of loud arrangements in all those slow motion sequences. So Babu Bangaram by any standards (including scale) and putting it rightly this can easily be stated as a step backward, in terms of execution as well as entertainment offered to its viewers.

The film starts off well with Venkatesh’s Suryavamsam makeover and pity sequences. But post that for about 1 hour, it offers nothing as promised by the trailer. Hence the first half is not that effective as compared to the second one since it keeps focusing on various other subplots in the script, which do not register at all. The romantic track between Venkatesh & Nayanthara and so does the family comedy angle forced into proceedings to provide some relief moments, which completely fail to do so.

I have nothing against clichéd cop stories and neither do I have anything against Venkatesh repeating an act he’s done to death. He’s good at it and he can play it in his sleep and it works mostly, but here he looks completely over enthusiastic, and ironically, seems to be having more of a blast playing too sympathetic Krishna or aggressive ACP, with whom we him having random life defining changes with at various junctures in the plot that said, you know, there’s something really wrong with the film, if you’d rather it revolved around typical, yet infectiously dippy character than a blah romance that’s apogee you see coming a mile off. Nayanthara remains the usual glamour doll in all forced in sequences falling flat and their love doesn’t even seem to be part of the film throughout. The rest of the actors too are saddled with such thankless parts, that you feel bad for them as they bobble around desperately trying to make the most of their poorly defined characters. The women especially get the worst deal here. The two villains Sampath Raj and Posani Krishna Murali never seem to be any kind of powerful opponents. Vennela Kishore, Chandra, Bhramanandam, Prudhvi, Bhramaji, Sonam Bajwa, Murali Sharma not even a single actor comes up with a worth mentioning act to be straight.

You know those films that show all their best bits and pieces in their trailers?? They are the worst offenders. its those ones that give you false sense of promise by enticing you in with a decent fun trailer; only to stunningly let you down when you get round to seeing the final product. Babu Bangaram is one of such films that’s hangdog of not just that, but for also being a muzzy, inspired mess that undoubtedly, must have sounded lovely and smart on paper, but turns out to be one that goes horrendously haywire in its execution.

Survi Review: 1.5/5