Balayya back with a bang

Duo Balayya-Boyapati are back again with their latest flick Legend four years after their last released hit movie Simha. The film begins with politician Jitendra (Jagapathi Babu), hailing from Rayalaseema, killing a village head (Suman) in a duel while on a visit to Visakhapatnam. This sows the seeds of a rivalry that continues for years between the two families. Meanwhile, younger son of the village head Krishna (Balakrishna), returns to his homeland from abroad with his girlfriend Sneha (Sonal Chauhan), harbouring a wish to marry her in his grandmother’s house. On his way from airport, he accidentally gets involved in a fight with Jitendra’s son.

Few days later, Jitendra’s son breathes his last in a hospital. This results in Krishna incurring the wrath of Jitendra who thinks the former has killed his son. Jitendra plans to eliminate Krishna on his way to the temple along with his family members. At this nail biting juncture in the movie, a character called Jayadev (Balakrishna), makes a high-voltage entry to save the family. Who is Jayadev and why was he hiding all this time – the crux of the story revolves around this mystery.

This is the second time that director Boyapati Srinu has directed Balakrishna. Taking the regular commercial story, he has moulded it in his own way with a few twists and turns. However, he seemed obsessed throughout in depicting Balakrishna in a powerful manner. He has incorporated politically charged satirical dialogues and quite successfully too. When it comes to the performance, Balakrishna has essayed the two characters effortlessly, but has managed to shine more in Jayadev’s avatar. His body language, dialogue delivery is nothing short of perfect and on the whole, this would be a treat for his fans. Jagapathi Babu, in his first negative role, has rendered a stupendous performance. Coming to female leads, Radhika Apte scores slightly better than Sonal Chauhan. Though it has its own drawbacks, overall, Legend is a treat for Balakrishna fans and has all the ingredients to become another commercial hit.