Movie Review 'Rabhasa': NTR Jr shines in dull film

Cast: NTR Jr, Samantha, Pranitha, Brahmanandam, Nasser, Nagineedu and Ajay
Director: Santosh Srinivas
Rating: ***

Finally, after a couple of postponements, the much-awaited NTR Jr film Rabhasa has been released. This film is important for NTR Jr’s career. Samantha and Pranitha are playing the female leads in the film directed by Santosh Srinivas.
Karthik (NTR Jr) returns to India from abroad and is on a mission. He wants to fulfil his mother’s (Jayasudha) wish that he marry her brother’s daughter. He wants to check on the mayor-aspirant Dhanunjay (Sayaji Shinde) and marry his daughter Indu (Samantha). He meets another girl Bhagyam (Pranitha) and assumes that she is Dhanunjay’s daughter.
Indu has her own story. She wants to marry a man, who actually rescued her friend from a marriage, which was being solemnised against her wish. But her problem is she has never seen the man, but spoken to him only on the telephone. So she is in search of her dream man.
Meanwhile, two families, headed by Peddi Reddy (Jayaprakash Reddy) and Gangi Reddy (Nagineedu), are fighting for supremacy in a village. Indu and Karthik arrive in Peddi Reddy’s house and from here onwards it’s a comedy of errors. Did Indu find her dream man? Did Karthik fulfil his mother’s wish? And how the two faction-ridden families become united, forms the crux of the story.
For director Santosh Srinivas this is his second film. Here he has a chance to direct a big star, but surprisingly he chooses a routine script rather than a strong and different one. The first half of the film tries to establish the characters with too many flashbacks and there are two parallel stories. Post interval the entertainment starts with the entry of Brahmanandam and others, but too many twists and turns are confusing at times. Such comedy films have been seen earlier in Tollywood. The director does not come up with anything new. It is a mediocre film.
When it comes to performance, it is NTR Jr, who actually carries the film on his shoulders with his brilliant acting. He is perfect for his part and does a neat job, especially in the emotional scenes. Samantha is as usual glamorous and Pranitha appears for a short stint, but she leaves her mark. Brahmanandam, once again proves that he is an asset for any film and here he entertains generating laughter. Others including, Jayaprakash Reddy, Nagineed and Anjay play typical faction leaders.
The big minus is Thaman’s music. Perhaps he is handling too many films these days and one really can’t tell, which song is from which film.