Raviteja's Balupu Review

Raviteja's career gelupu with Balupu

There is a school that strongly believes that cinema is entertainment pure and simple. The likes of Manmohan Desai and David Dhawan raked in the moolah with this philosophy. They did not believe in selling dreams. They believed in creating an impossible situation and delivering a punch filled tale that drew whistles, cat calls and the bells at the BO. Joining the group is Gopichand Malineni. This is a whole school that believes that grotesque is magic. A 'take it or leave it' is writ large on such cinema which makes the label acceptable and credible within its stated premise. A text book instance of the school is Ravi Teja. Tollywood has generally subscribed to this school. A stand out example of the genre is Ravi Teja. This stated, the film warrants acceptance or avoidance, depending on where you come from.

Students of cinema would perhaps take up the cudgels for even attempting a compare of the protagonist here with Big B - yet at the cost of sounding blasphemous I shall state the obvious. Like Big B, Ravi Teja brings to the script a nascent commitment that plods you away from logic with a touching sense of loyalty to the character. Not withstanding his multiple limitations he can fight like Salman, woo like Shahrukh, create an image like Aamir, tickle like Saif and what more would the fan want!!. The audience is straight away served a Table d'h�te with a fight involving Rohit (Adivi Sesh) and Shanker (Ravi Teja) and a quick item number involving Lakshmi Rai.

The story line has Shruthi (Shruti Hasan) and her uncle Crazy Mohan (Brahmanandam) conning youngsters just for fun . One such victim is Boggu Sreenu (Satyam Rajesh) who attempts to commit suicide. Shanker decides to avenge the insult and takes the duo head on. Meanwhile Dad Mohan Rao (Prakash Raj ) is willing to do anything ( including land in the jail for eve teasing) to ensure that his son gets married. Why this fixation? That would be jumping the gun. Lets wait for the twist-a-minute story to unfurl. Before long you know that Shruti has to fall in love with Shanker though she is engaged to Rohit. Obviously you also know that with Ravi Teja around, there must be larger than life violence and a tale to back it up.

So we have a long drawn past and a course full of twists and turns and the kind of dialogues that Ravi Teja (and he alone!) can mouth. Here is a sample: Nenu casualga kodtene casualty ward ki veltaru, concentrated ga kodte mortuary lo padtaru; Nuvvu kaluste bullet, nenu kaluste chocolate; ayana ichchina note pai Gandhi bomma, nenu ichchina note pai Mumaith Khan bomma unda;

A leisured flashback shows how Shanker has a concealed avtar when he was in love with (Anjali) and how he has a lost lasting battle with bad man Poorna (Ashutosh Rana) who has been travelling across the country to destroy them. Brahmanandam and Ali always have something special to offer in a Ravi Teja film and so it is this time too. Brahmanandam has a full fledged role and is his predictably, his delectable self. Ali in comparison has a smaller role, but does his best as does Tagubothu Ramesh in a very short role. Shruti Hasan looks like Mom Sarika and behaves like colleague Illeana and gives only the dress designer the work for his money. The director ensures that you follow the script and its twists and turns with interest but only in the context of mainstream commercial cinema.

Ravi Teja is the main stay of the film. He continues to entertain and do roles that are far from convincing. He has for himself a niche space and the film reiterates it. Watch for the Ravi Teja flavour. The tile does not have an accurate English synonym. Like the word the film defies an accurate or apt slotting.

- L Ravichander