Khaidi No 150 Review: Boss is back indeed but…

 Sethumadhavan N

It’s been nearly a decade since we saw Chiranjeevi on screen, excluding of course the brief cameos in films like Magadheera (2009) and Bruce Lee (2015). With a foray into politics that did not really turn out to be a blockbuster as expected and with his son Ram Charan having more or less established a firm foothold in the industry as an actor, it was no surprise when it was announced that he would return back to acting. The film was touted as his 150th film and that made it all the more special though the exact figure is debatable (on including his entire filmography including cameos he has already completed 150 films with Bruce Lee). Finally the wait for news of the project came to an end during the summer of 2016 as it was announced that Chiranjeevi’s comeback film would be Khaidi No 150 (a nod to his previous hits like Khaidi-1983 & Khaidi No 786-1988, as well as an acknowledgement of his 150th film). What was a surprise of sorts was that it was to be a remake of A.R.Murugadoss’s hit Tamil film, Kaththi (2014) featuring Vijay.

Khaidi No 150 has gone on to open the Sankranthi festival with a bang, not a surprise considering that it has been helmed by popular director V.V.Vinayak. Interestingly V.V.Vinayak and Chiranjeevi had collaborated in the past with Tagore (2003), which was once again a remake of an A.R.Murugadoss Tamil film, Ramana (2002). I was a little apprehensive as to whether this was the right comeback movie for Chiranjeevi, especially considering that Vijay is a lot younger to the Megastar, the other reason for worry was to do with the feeling that the original film would have perhaps been tampered a lot with, to cater to the image of Chiranjeevi as well as to suit the Telugu audience better.  So now that the film has had a grand release, is it well and truly a remarkable comeback by the actor whose popularity perhaps remains unchanged? Also does Khaidi No 150 manage to put all the apprehensions aside and satisfy the audience, especially the diehard fans of Chiranjeevi? And does it turn out to be a case of 2nd time lucky in terms of the Chiranjeevi-V.V.Vinayak-A.R.Murugadoss combination? Well let’s get into that soon.

Khaidi No 150 beings with a prison breakout in Kolkata as Kaththi Seenu (Chiranjeevi) outsmarts the cops and escapes from jail in the process of helping them nab another prisoner on the run. Reaching Hyderabad Seenu takes the help of his friend Malli (Ali)to fly out to Bangkok but stays back instead in Hyderabad as he comes across Lakshmi (Kajal Aggarwal), falling in love with her instantaneously.  In a quirk of fate Seenu happens to see a lookalike of him, Shankar getting shot at by some unknown assailants. Seenu then decides to assume the identity of Shankar to stay out of the reach of the cops, little realizing that a change of identity would go on to alter his life like he had never thought of.  While Seenu is a convict, Shankar is a social activist who is fighting for-the rights of his villagers. The village which has been facing a severe water shortage over the years apparently has a hidden untapped water source, due to which a major corporate headed by Aggarwal (Tarun Arora) is desperate to take over the agricultural lands in the village. How does Seenu go on to handle the situation from thereon is what the rest of the film is all about.

The film remains mostly a faithful remake of Kaththi, the only changes are with respect to the songs and a couple of additional comedy tracks featuring Brahmanandam and Posani Krishna Murali. Khaidi No 150 is an out an out Chiranjeevi show, he is simply a delight be it fights, dances or dialogue delivery, he charms the audience comfortably. But while V.V.Vinayak ensured that the spotlight is on the megastar and has seen to it that the film doesn’t deviate much from the original, he seems to have not taken so much care on some of the other aspects. Devi Sri Prasad’s soundtrack is a mixed bag of sorts, with “Ammadu Let’s Do Kummadu”  (lyrics by Devi Sri Prasad, vocals by Devi Sri Prasad and Ranina Reddy) and “You and Me” (lyrics by SriMani, vocals by Hariharan and Shreya Ghoshal) being the best of the lot. While even Kaththi did not offer much scope for the female lead (Samantha), over here it is even worse and there’s practically no chemistry between Chiranjeevi and Kajal Aggarwal.

One of the best aspects of Kaththi was an extremely strong antagonist (Neil Nitin Mukesh) who not only looked suave, but also had a wonderful screen presence and looked like a good opponent to a mass hero like Vijay. On that front Khaidi No 150 fails, Tarun Arora is quite wooden and appears a clear misfit, obviously no match for the charismatic protagonist. The comedy portions are strictly average, both Brahmanandam and Ali being a pale shadow of themselves. Despite all this Khaidi No 150 is a breezy watch and for those who have not seen the original it is an entertaining film that you expect to watch as a festival release. V.V.Vinayak may not have delivered an excellent comeback vehicle for Chiranjeevi, I’m sure he could have done better. But then this is thankfully not something that is embarrassing for either Chiranjeevi or his fans.

Bottomline:

Khaidi No 150 sees Chiranjeevi back in action and he literally shows that he was never really gone from the screen as he dances, fights and delivers dialogues with gusto. V.V.Vinayak may not get marks for ensuring an outstanding comeback for the megastar, but he ensures that the fans are happy as they get to see that their “boss is back”.

Rating: 3/5