Race Gurram

Right from the word go, I was cursing myself for coming to watch this movie. The family sentiment seemed contrived, acting too loud, romance illogical, and the list goes on. But surprisingly, after almost 3 hours, I left the theater satisfied (how is that even possible?).

Scripted and directed by Surender Reddy, Race Gurram starts off just like any other commercial Telugu movie, with phony sequences and loud acting. While the first half seemed dull with mediocre screenplay, Surender manages to pull half the later half exceedingly well. The overall direction though could have been much better.

On acting front, it's more or less a cake walk for Arjun. His body language is superb, and he performs with ease. But what needs mention is one performance: Brahmi a.k.a Kill Bill Pandey, take a bow! He is absolutely entertaining.

Overall, the screenplay in the second half, Bunny's strong screen presence and Bramhi come to the rescue in this mediocre film, and you walk out of the theater satisfied. So just for that, you can give it a watch.

For a detailed review, please visit sasikanth.me :)

What should I say about this film? I am writing this review almost a decade after its original release. Yet, the film continues to work big time for me, just as it did at the time of its release. Everything about it works for me. Allu Arjun's solid performance, Vakkantham's engaging writing, Thaman's terrific BGM, songs, and re-recording, along with the master storyteller Surender Reddy's impeccable and impactful direction, all stand out.

I don't know who came up with the title, but it is such a befitting title for this adrenaline-rush-inducing movie. The direction, editing, performances, and music all complement each other brilliantly. The interval block is one of the best in TFI so far. This block is a testament to the caliber of Surender Reddy. He manages to achieve something extraordinary out of this block, which, in the hands of many others, would've fallen flat. Damn!!!

Once again, every element, including, Brahmi's block in the climax, Sruthi Haasan's track, Prakash Raj's track, and the terrific casting with Ravi Kishan, who killed his role, stands out. Every time I see him, he performs solidly, and his scenes are executed so well that they are blood pumping, Mukesh Rushi's dubbing, the terrific comedy, including Saloni's, MS Narayana's track, and Posani's track... It's impressive that they had so many elements in the movie, yet they all blended so seamlessly.

But it is also kind of sad that Surender Reddy hasn't directed or chosen an original project such as this or Kick since then. Looking at the projects that followed this movie, I presume he had to take some out of compulsion rather than his choice. Nonetheless, in Surender Reddy, I continue to believe. Thank you, sir, for giving us this gem of a movie.

Ram(Shaam) and lakshman aka lucky(Allu Arjun) are brothers who never get with each other since childhood. They always fight like tom and jerry. Ram is a sincere and respected police officer whereas lucky is unemployed who wishes to work in america. Lucky falls in love with spandana(shruthi hassan) who is daughter of a millionaire bheem prakash(prakash raj). Maddali shiva reddy(ravi kishan) is a local gangster who is going to join politics. When lucky meets bheem prakash to talk about his relationship with spandana, bheem prakash said that his brother ram said to him that lucky is unemployed living with his brother's income and refuses this relationship. Furious lucky has a fight with ram in the house and gets slapped by his mother. Lucky swears revenge to make ram lose his job. Ram gets evidence regarding siva reddy's criminal activities. He is supposed to present it before siva reddy signs the nomination for election. But at that time lucky steals ram's jeep in which the evidence was so that ram will get suspended. Siva reddy gets to know about ram's plan and hires goons to kill him. But the goons attack lucky who was in ram's car. When lucky comes to know that they were planning to kill ram his brotherly love awakens and bashes those goons and beats siva reddy black and blue before he signs for nomination and siva reddy is in coma. Siva reddy's father peddi reddy(mukesh rishi) is in search of the guy who put his son in coma and lucky himself appears infont of peddi reddy and explains him that why he did it and requests him not to trouble his family hereafter. Lucky plans to get ram hitched and searches for ram's love interest shwetha(saloni). Ram and shwetha unite and their wedding plans are started. At that time siva reddy wakes up from coma and comes to know lucky met his father. His father says that he spared so that you could take revenge on your own when you wake up. Siva reddy becomes minister without election and starts plotting against lucky and his family. First, he makes ram charged in a sexual assault and make him lose his job, then he demolishes their house and expose lucky to ram that he had stolen the jeep that day due to which ram throws him from the family. That moment, lucky is attacked by siva reddy's goons and is tied upside just like he tied siva reddy. Lucky challenges siva reddy that he will dethrone him soon. Will lucky win the challenge? For that watch race gurram. Race gurram has 80% comedy and 20% action/mass. Allu arjun's character is an extension of his julayi character. The real highlight is bhramanandam as kill bill pandey who shines in the last 20 minutes. Shaam's fading career got ressurected with rg. Thaman's music is good after repeated listening. Ravi kishan sometimes gets on your nerves. Surender reddy uses his stylish making in parts. But the movie is too long. Comedy is crass. There are lots of over the top sequences. Shruthi hassan's character was initially very interesting but she is soon turned into a typical heroine. I wished her character to be the same like in the beginning. Before rg, allu arjun was only a mid range hero in tollywood. But after rg, allu arjun is today an A list actor of tollywood. But I never felt anything great in rg.

Race Gurram is a good entertainer that makes you feel good when you walk out of the theater. Brahmanandam, Ali, Posani and M.S.Narayana will make sure that you have a good time. Allu Arjun has improved tremendously as an actor and this movie is going to be one of his best commercial hits. The screen play, direction and many other things contributed to this film were fruitful. And Shruthi Hasan in the movie playing the female lead role, never put down the audience, she was fabulous in this film as compared to other films she has acted, trust she was just beautiful in her act. And Allu Arjun has also done a very good job. Fun-filled action thriller it was.

And yeah, it's seriously worth watching! :)

Flying, rolling (in the air) automobiles? This has it spades, if that kind of thing is your ... thing. Loud, melodramatic leads? Yup, right up there... Songs when there is no need , feeding our common navel-gazing frenzy? Yup. Comedy that works ? Surprisingly, in spades too (and that's what kinda elevates this one over others of its ilk, of which there have been quite a few, and will be many more, judging by the way the audiences are lapping it up). Cases in point - the entire initial 'Inside' track and 'Kill Bill' Pandey.

A good Allu Arjun performance? Standard-order, since he seems to be quite sincere in almost everything that he does.

Also, for the first time, plastic-surgery seems to suit someone.

The bad? Time for the brickbats, since most audiences are too forgiving about everything bad in movies like this.

Let me get the typical ones out of the way. Loud acting, loud clothes, loud situations, loud sets, loud everything - check. An almost unimaginable level of suspension of disbelief - check. Situations and lines that want one to scream 'BS' every time - check. Comedy that's crass, and doesn't work for you, but has your immediate neighbor in splits - double check. Bad, extremely bad CGI, that's being passed off as great CGI since AP is the hub of all things software - triple check. Gory, violent, yet cartoony sequences that keep going on (and on, and on....and, you get my drift) even after you've yawned and yawned and yawned - quadruple check (that's actually true).

Moving on to an atypical grouse - Watching movies like 'Cuckoo' reinforces the perplexing nature of wrong lip-sync in most mainstream Indian movies, esp. those from AP and TN (admittedly, to a relatively lesser extent). All the main characters whose native language is not Telugu lip-sync their lines so badly (not their fault, they're doing it in another language), and I don't know how it is for the rest of us, but it never fails to take me out of the movie every-friggin-time. I want to buy-in to what's going on on screen, but fail whenever I see no lip-sync. Our mainstream audiences are really, really forgiving of their multi-crore offerings, and maybe, just maybe, that's not such a bad thing?

I'd advise you to watch it at the local big screen, but do these guys deserve your money? I'd say no, but you'll not bother. Maybe.