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Thoughts on Devara

 



Mild  Spoilers Ahead! [not if you have already watched Vada Chennai]


Special Taskforce Officer Danny rushes to Erra Samudram with his team to arrest smuggler Yethi, only to find out that he has been MIA for the last few months. Then they meet Sivappa, who tells them the story of Devara in the first half. In the second half, 12 years later, we are seeing the story of Vara. The rest of the story is about where Devara went and how the villain Bhaira got his revenge.


At the end, we see glimpses of Kattappa putting a sword through Bahubali. Sorry! Vara stabbing Devara [I hope when they reveal the scene in the next part, Devara will not say “Amma Jakrata.”]


It takes a special kind of effort to make a movie that has utterly terrible VFX with 300Cr. You can clearly see water and boats at two different layers. All the night shots, we can identify where the flashlights have been placed for lighting. 


In one particular scene, the protagonist is stomping a guy’s head (wish it was the director’s head) in burning wood, which is a closeup shot. Sadly, the VFX felt like the marriage video albums from the early 2000s where the couples are cut and pasted to be dancing in front of Eiffel/Taj Mahal. 


Set pieces looked like they were borrowed from drama equipment rental shops. Editing could’ve been better at places. Anirud’s background score was a saving grace but definitely a below average album in terms of songs after Indian 2.       

   

Apparently the VFX team thought their poor work would be balanced by writing, and the writing department spoiled their hopes by making  sure the story and screenplay got as uninteresting as possible as the film progressed and stabbing a few elevation scenes in between would solve the problem. 


Writers are the real villains of this movie. Warriors who have trained vigorously for one particular task of killing Devara for more than a decade get killed in mere seconds without any fights, and the two unwanted songs do not make any sense at all.


Imagine we are being shown almost 15 minutes of sequences of how ruthless and hardened these Bhaira’s self-trained warriors are, and their deaths look pointless. 


They couldn’t even create a new catchphrase for the protagonist. Just recreated Baasha's dialogue with different words: “If Devara tells something, he orders you." It can’t get any lazier than this.

        

And you told us the villagers are from a mighty warrior clan; it doesn’t mean you should show repeated fights in different themes to showcase their ability. At one point in the movie, one character confronts another character in the pre-climax. It felt so artificial as we already knew what happened, and the dialogues were very weak, like they were copied from afternoon TV serials that no one watches.


Performances wise Jr.NTR as Devara and Vara dominated throughout the movie with his screen presence. Shruthi Marathe as Devara’s wife, Srikanth as Rayappa, and Saif Ali Khan as Bhaira were good. Prakash Raj as usual delivered his best as Sivappa. Kalaiyarasan and Shine Tom Chacko are literally wasted given their acting abilities. Also, they even got a religious Granny for them like the one Chandra has in Vada Chennai. Upcoming is a special mention to Jhanvi Kapoor.


Jhanvi Kapoor proved that she is much more than an eye candy. She plays an integral role in the movie. Jhanvi might have just delivered one of the best peforma…I am just lying.


The truth is, if you think Srivalli from Pushpa is the worst written female lead character in recent times, Thangamma, aka Thangam, is coming to you with “Hold my Pallu ra Bidda." If you’re planning on taking your kids with you to watch this, I recommend not, especially for the parts where she is on screen. In the name of showing a progressive female lead, we’ve got some extreme vulgarity on our hands. Even Ravi Teja would be uncomfortable.


It has become a new trend now that if you have extra footage, you can make the movie as two parts [Not you Vetrimaaran Sir] and make profit with it. Just because production houses have to make profit, they can’t put audiences through Garbage’s like Indian 2, Devara, etc. 


Overall, Devara Part One was a painful watch that can be skipped even without a thought. If you have already watched, please share your trauma in the comments.

 

Rajamouli curse is real people. It won’t leave anyone. Unfortunately, Koratala Siva had to be there for both Ramcharan and Jr. NTR. I feel sad for the man.


For more, stay tuned with Aviyal Creators. On a side note, watch Lubber Pandhu and Meiyazhagan. Awesome movies.


Ram




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