Cast: Balakrishna, Kajal Aggarwal, Sreeleela, Arjun Rampal, Raghu Babu and others
Direction: Anil Ravipudi
Rating: 2.5 stars
Action hero Balakrishna appears in a new avatar and age-appropriate role in his latest release ‘Bhagavanth Kesari’ and showcases his anger abundantly to enthrall his fans. On the other hand, he depicts his softer side as a guardian of a young girl (Sreeleela) and their relationship gives a new dimension to this action adventure based out of Telangana region.
Balakrishna ends up paying tribute to the girl child and even talks about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ touch and urges mothers to bring up their girl child as brave hearts at a school event. He ridicules people who call girls the ‘weaker’ sex as he transforms a timid and fearful Sreeleela into a fighting angel after many hiccups. Kudos to young director Anil Ravipudi for blending the father-daughter kind of sentiment and the tug-of-war between Balakrishna and ruthless business tycoon Arjun Rampal, in equal measure, albeit is a bit contrived.
Anil Ravipudi captures one to two fight sequences on a lighter-note as Balakrishna bashes up goons in a bus dancing to a song and also goons covering their faces while being arrested since he is killing people whose faces he dislikes. Kajal Aggarwal plays a psychologist, but she spends more time in wooing middle-aged Balakrishna with salt-peppered beard than spending time at a hospital.
The film begins with Balakrishna in a Warangal jail and he saves a rich man from thugs and wins the appreciation of the jailer (Sarath Kumar). His daughter begins to call Balakrishna a ‘superman’ and their bonding gets strengthened. Sarath Kumar gets him released from jail on August 15th and leaves his little daughter with him before going to Hyderabad.
The girl gets shocked and begins to suffer anxiety and phobia issues after seeing her father’s car accident on TV. Balakrishna tries to instill confidence in her since he wanted to enroll her in the army as wished by Sarath Kumar. Meanwhile, she falls in love and starts disliking her father. One day, she is about to be killed by goons, when Balakrishna arrives in time and finds that the villain who is trying to kill Sreelela is none-other-than Arjun Rampal, with whom he has issues to settle. Will Balakrishna and Sreeleela reunite and will he be able to stop Arjun Rampal, who vows to kill Sreeleela.
After an action role in ‘Veerasimhareddy’, Balakrishna returns as a doting guardian of a girl who later treats him like a father. Balakrishna has chosen a different theme that showcases his anger as well as emotional side and proved his mettle.
Balakrishna talking about good and bad touch is an eye-opener of sorts and pays tribute to girl child, which is quite laudable. Sreeleela's performance as a timid and fearful girl is good. She shines in dance and action sequences. Arjun Rampal dubs in Telugu and showcases his fiery side as a ruthless tycoon, who kills his own son to become numero uno businessman. Kajal has nothing much to do in this film except to chase Balakrishna and win his love and her talent is truly wasted. Cinematographer Ram Prasad captures few breathtaking visuals, while composer Thaman couldn’t match up to his earlier works, except in background score at some places.
Anil Ravipudi, who showed his flair for comedy in films like ‘F2’ and ‘Raja The Great’, delivers an anger-driven film this time to join the top league of action directors in Tollywood. It is now in the hands of Telugu audiences to catapult him to the big league or not. Of course, Anil has done a decent enough job in a new genre by avoiding clichéd comedy tracks and love duets.
