Katamarayudu Review - Pawan Kalyan Does His Rescue Act

Sethumadhavan

When it was announced that Pawan Kalyan’s next release post Sardaar Gabbar Singh would be Katamarayudu with Kishore Kumar Pardasani, it made people wonder why he is going the remake route again so soon. Yes one does understand his need to deliver a hit after the failure of Sardaar Gabbar Singh, but would remaking the Tamil hit Veeram (2014) featuring Ajith be the right option is what his fans were keen to know. With the opening scenes of the film itself Kishore Kumar makes his stance quite clear, as we see Katamarayudu (Pawan Kalyan) and his brothers “handling” a businessman (Pradeep Rawat) and his team which includes his hot blooded brother, after getting upset over what appeared to be an unfair business proposal. This opening fight sequence is clearly different from the way Veeram begins, a good indicator that probably the director has adapted the film in his own way. We get more indicators of the same as the film chugs along forward.

Somewhere in the interiors of Rayalseema we find that Katamarayudu is the most powerful man around in the area, a businessman and a do-gooder who has the trust and respect of people around. He lives with his brothers (Ajay, Siva Balaji, Kamal Kamaraju and Chaitanya Krishna) as well as his friend and lawyer (Ali). As he believes in delivering justice for the people he has his fair share of enemies as well. His world revolves around his brothers and his friend, they jointly take care of business, look after the welfare of the villagers and also make merry in their own way. Katamarayudu does not believe in marriage, as he fears that it might go on to affect the wonderful bond that he shares with his brothers. But soon with 3 of his brothers and his friend falling in love, they realize that the only way forward for all of them to move ahead in life is to ensure that Katamarayudu also falls in love and settles down.

As they go about trying to be a catalyst in the process Katamarayudu slowly undergoes a change of mind as he starts liking Avantika (Shruti Haasan), a classical dancer. She reciprocates his feelings as well, without knowing that he is a daredevil person. On the contrary Avantika belongs to a family which is totally against violence of any kind. What happens from thereon is what the rest of the film is all about. Having earlier worked with Pawan Kalyan in Gopala Gopala (2015), Kishore Kumar Pardasani has by now developed a comfort level with the star. Instead of going in for a frame to frame remake of the original film, he has gone on to retain the basic plot, while adapting it suitably. And in the process he appears to have made sure that the focus remains on Pawan Kalyan, for he is the dynamic force with respect to the film. In a way Katamarayudu seems to be an extension of Pawan Kalyan’s larger than life image, which is evident these days both on screen as well as of screen.

While he first half of the film is relatively lighter, with its adequate share of fun moments, the second half becomes predictably serious and has its share of emotional moments as well. The action sequences handled by Ram-Laxman’s are power packed; especially the train fight which is a highlight. Sadly the impact gets a little diluted due to the shoddy VFX work which appears during the same. The songs by Anup Rubens are enough to make the fans of Pawan Kalyan happy, though none of them make a major impact as such. In terms of performances, of the villains it is Rao Ramesh as the scheming baddie with a comic touch who does well while Pradeep Rawat and Tarun Arora are strictly functional. Nassar is effective as he usually is, Ali is funny at times and among Katamarayudu’s brothers, Ajay is the pick of the lot. Shruti Haasan does have good on screen chemistry with Pawan Kalyan but she doesn’t impress much in the film, especially as she does not have much to do in the second half of the film.

The film completely belongs to Pawan Kalyan, here he stays quite in control and yet takes care to ensure that he brings in the required ingredients which would make his fans go back happy. Despite being a typical formulaic fare, if you are still kept engaged by the film then the credit certainly goes to Pawan Kalyan for the same. Katamarayudu is nowhere close to his best, but it certainly can make you finally forget his previous on screen outing.

Bottomline:

If you are a fan of Pawan Kalyan and/or looking for a time pass entertainer without too much of expectations then Katamarayudu might just work for you this weekend.

Rating: 3/5

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