Mr Bachchan Review: A bizzare remake, stale jokes add to torture

Rating: 1/ 5 stars

Unfortunately, the much-hyped remake of the Hindi film 'Raid’ falls flat on its face due to amateurish screenplay and direction. Ravi Teja has never been seen in such a poor light, thanks to his friend and director Harish Shankar, who made him mock legendary actors like Amitabh Bachchan and Akkineni Nageshwar Rao and imitated them in songs and dances that a hero of his stature could have avoided it. Probably, he trusted him more than necessary and paid a heavy price as he was doing more nautanki in the movie than playing an honest Income Tax officer. The director thought that remaking was an easy job and added a childhood episode, his first love, and his friend's orchestra before the hero steps into the house of a feudal lord-turned-corrupt politician(Jagapathi Babu) for a raid of his life. The most bizarre part is that the director adds personal animosity between the hero and the kin of Jagapathi Babu, whereas in the original it was purely professional rivalry between the honest officer and corrupt man and kills the ‘soul’ of the original If this is called, changing a film to cater to masses than it is most ridiculous and thoughtless idea. Because new age Telugu audiences have evolved and watching gritty movies like ‘Maharaja’.

Nevertheless, the film goes from bad to worse as he incorporates the comedy of Chammak Chandra in the house of raid, which is too much to digest. The new girl Bhagyasree Bhorse is tall and pretty and dances well.

Still, she is no match to Sreeleela's energy in ‘Dhamaka’. Above all, in trying to justify the title, Ravi Teja’s father watches ‘Sholay’ umpteen times and comes home to change the name of his son to Mr Bachchan. Thereafter Ravi Teja only croons Hindi songs and sings numbers of Kumar Sanu in Telugu-speaking villages.

The film begins with two rich people obtaining money from the bank and being kidnapped by robbers. Ravi Teja chases the goons and protects the two members. Impressed with him they ask him to marry their girl. Ravi Teja arrives at their house the next day and seeks gold to match the bride’s weight and when all gold is put out, Ravi Teja declares himself as IT officer and seizes the gold. The next day, he is suspended for disturbing a rich man and he comes to his village. He falls in love with village belle Bhagyashree and she also reciprocates after keeping him at bay for some time. Before they get married, he is again reappointed and asked to raid the house of Jagapathu Babu and the real game starts.

Ravi Teja should be careful about choosing his scripts since few directors are taking him for a ride. His last film ‘Eagle’ also had an outlandish plot and it bombed. Ravi Teja looks fit and impresses in a few scenes and he is good at racy dancing movements these days-from Dhamaka to Mr Bacchchan. Bhagyashree has nothing much to do and just has to look pretty. Jagapathi Babu's character looks like a caricature in comparison to Saurabh Skukla’s role in the original, while Tanikella Bharani, Sachin Kandekar, and Ajay Ratnam are just ok. Comedians Satya and Chammak Chandra truly disappoint with silly jokes.