Devaraya

Synopsis: Dora Babu (Srikanth) is a free spirited young man who believes in living life to the fullest. He is a descendent of Krishnadevaraya, the emperor of the erstwhile Vijayanagaram Empire. Dorababu learns that he is Krishnadevaraya reborn, and has a promise to keep.

Movie Review: When you see a tag line that reads - an untold story of Kirshna Devaraya – it’s natural to expect some sort of a revelation about the 15th century ruler. But after watching the movie you can’t help feeling, perhaps it was a story better left untold. Expect for a few minutes of visual effects which stand out, we are afraid the movie is just too lame even by the modest standards of Tollywood.

At the centre of it all is a happy go lucky village dude, Dora Babu who loves nothing more than a good time. Always surrounded by a gang of wastrels, he spends most of his time making merry drinking his fill and hitting on all the record dancers that come to the village. However, he falls in love with Swapna (Vidisha), the grand daughter of a Telugu scholar (Ranganath).

One day an archeologist (Sivaji Raja) turns up at the grandfather’s doorstep with an old book that he discovered in the ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire, requesting the Telugu scholar to decode it. It turns out the book is a personal diary of a dancing girl, that the emperor takes a fancy for. Soon it is revealed that Dora Babu shares more than than family lineage with the legendary Tuluva dynasty ruler. He is Krishna Devaraya himself, reborn to complete a five hundred year old job left undone and so goes the story.

The filmmaker plays to the galleries unabashedly and laced the film with tuck loads of masala. There is a pretty suggestive classical dance number in the emperor’s court which takes the cake. There are issues of taste with the writing and the humor is what you call “too low brow.” Matters of taste aside there isn’t too much of craft on display either and the poor production values just stick out like a sore thumb.

Some action sequences in the movie are the only saving grace in the movie, besides Srikanth’s earnest performance ie. The actor delivered a convincing performance as Krishna Devaraya, mouthing long winding dialogues with aplomb. As for the ladies –Vidisha and Meenakshi Dixit - are just meant to titillate, which they do pretty well.

Tip Off: The film has issues of taste as it seems to be made to cater to the front rows, so viewer discretion is advised.