‘Mass’ively entertaining

Ravi Teja is at his very best when he has an escapist, flippant kind of a role to enact which has a dash of comedy, timely eruption of machismo to confront the bad guys and a goofy approach when it comes to dealing with the opposite sex.

‘Touch Chesi Chudu’ hence is very much in his comfort zone. It begins breezily where one sees a quiet, understated presence of the businessman hero who seems to be reveling in spending time with his family and putting off prospective matrimonial alliances.

He almost loses the chance to win the affection of Raashi Khanna as he mucks up every opportunity of declaring his love for her. He maintains his patience when the henchmen of Bhai (Freddy Daruwala who makes his debut) interfere into his business and create multiple problems. The watching public however know something is up as he is supposed to be playing a cop and this is the post-interval block of this 146-minute flick.

Understandably, as is the trend with films in which the hero’s actual identity emerges after the first hour of its running, our man too is shown as a passionate policeman out to do just his duty, even if it means ignoring the beauty ( Seerat Kapoor) who pines for him and gives up. Here the scene moves into Hyderabad from the scenic Puducherry, a contrast of sorts, and the bad guys lace their dialogues with the local language to get their repartees from the hero too in the same manner.

Drawing uncomfortably close parallels to the old city politics and showing two brothers controlling it ( no prizes for guessing, who they are!) the director shows the fearless cop blasting his way into the lion’s den and bearding him, even if it means allowing the ruling party to hold a political meeting there. Here too, the colour and shades of the latter are closer to the ruling party at the Centre.

What stands out is the pace at which the film moves, even if one can guess how it will all pan out. Stretching the message of the need to maintain work-life balance and garnishing it with a commercial approach, Vikram Sirikonda delivers a decent birthday gift to the hero, who turned 50 last week.