MOVIES

Review: Baladoor

By Radhika Rajamani
August 14, 2008 18:04 IST

Uday Shankar takes up a stereotypical storyline in Baladoor and manages to entertain with a satisfactory screenplay in a formulaic way with a mix of action, comedy and romance.

He is ably assisted by Ravi Teja who comes up with a dependable performance as usual and is the lifeline of this Telugu movie. Uday Shankar also has the yesteryear superstar Krishna essaying the role of the patriarch Ramakrishna as well as Chandramohan playing the pivotal role of Ramakrishna's brother.

Chanti (Ravi Teja), who is shown bashing up people most of the time has a soft side to him. He's a good samaritan who loves his family and the pet of his uncle Ramakrishna. But he is always in trouble because of rowdy ways (especially with his father Chandramohan) which is invariably for the good.

Chanti bumps into Bhanu (Anushka) at the railway station and both along with Sunil board the wrong train. As expected, Bhanu falls in love with Chanti.

A villainous thread runs parallel to the family story. Pradeep Rawat is the main villain who was humiliated two decades ago by Ramakrishna. He nurses this grievance and looks for ways and opportunities to bring Ramakrishna and his business empire down. And so there is enough dishum-dishum in the film on account of this rivalry.

The first half of the film is a little light to watch but in the second half the emotion quotient gets a little stronger. Like in his previous film Raraju, Uday Shankar has a protagonist who bashes up people but who has a humane element in him.

Uday Shankar perhaps could have trimmed down the number of songs.

Baladoor belongs to Ravi Teja as he does a perfect job of entertaining the audience. He is able to impart the necessary emotion when required and thereby strike the balance between the serious and the playful aspect of the character. Ravi Teja is riding the crest wave of success with Dubai Seenu and Krishna and perhaps Baladoor will enhance it too.

Veteran actor Krishna, as the patriarch, is convincing. You have to see him pack a few punches as well at his age.

Chandramohan gives a credible performance. Pradeep Rawat and Subbaraju are believable as villains.

Anushka makes for a pretty picture but she does not have that much of a role to play.

A couple of songs are shot against picturesque locales but the music is passable.

On the whole, Baladoor is watchable and entertaining but don't expect anything drastically different.

Rediff Rating:

Radhika Rajamani

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