Movie: Ravanasura
Rating: 2.25/5
Banner: Abhishek Pictures
Cast: Ravi Teja, Anu Emmanuel, Megha Akash, Faria Abdullah, Sushanth, Daksha Nagarkar, Jayaram, Hyper Aadi, Sriram, Rao Ramesh, Murali Sharma, Sampath Raj, Harsha Vardhan, Praveen, and others
Story, Dialogue: Srikanth Vissa
Music: Harshavardhan Rameshwar, Bheems Ceciroleo
Cinematography: Vijay Kartik Kannan, G. K. Vishnu
Editor: Naveen Nooli
Producers: Abhishek Nama
Screenplay and Direction: Sudheer Varma
Release Date: April 07, 2023
Ravi Teja gained form after scoring two hit films in recent months. Hence, his new film "Ravanasura" attracted attention. Furthermore, the director, Sudheer Varma, is known for producing good thrillers, and the production company is well-known.
Let's analyze.
Story:
Ravindra (Ravi Teja) is an associate at the law firm run by Kanaka Mahalaxmi (Faria Abdullah). Kanaka declines to represent Harika (Megha Akash), but Ravindra begs her to take up the case as he is in love with Harika.
On the other hand, there is a string of murders. The murders follow a pattern, which a police officer (Jayaram) and his assistant Ruha (Pujitha) uncover. It doesn't take long for them to figure out that Ravindra is performing them and evading capture by donning the identities of other people.
Ravindra abducts Saketh's (Sushanth) girlfriend and blackmails him into creating prosthetic faces. Why does Ravindra seem to be randomly killing people? How come he's become a Ravana?
Artistes’ Performances:
Ravi Teja gets to show off the dark side of his acting chops in this scene. With all his skill, he plays the complex character with two distinct sides very well. Despite the many other actors in the film, it is unquestionably his show.
Sushanth's job entails little more than making prosthetics and not much else. Although he tries his hardest, Jayaram’s character doesn't come across as a credible high-ranking police officer.
Hyper Adhi delivers his usual one-liners. Rao Ramesh has a superficial role, and his Telangana diction is also bad.
Megha Akash, Faria Abdullah, Daksha Nagarkar, and Pujitha Ponnada all have a presence, but they aren't given much scope to act. Megha Akash's role is the best among them. She also has a dual-shaded role. There is only one substantial scene for Pujitha Ponnada in the film. Anu Emmanuel gets a junior artiste role.
Technical Excellence:
The cinematography is the noticeable feature among the technical work. Songs are neither catchy, nor do they make any impact. The remix song filmed on Ravi Teja and Megha Akash is also not effective. The story and screenplay is clumsy.
Highlights:
Ravi Teja’s acting
Sequence before the interval
Drawback:
Logic-less scenes
Clumsy narrative
No suspense
Predictable ending
Analysis
Although Srikanth Vissa was given credit for the story, it was actually adapted from the Bengali film “Vinci Da”. The Bengali film was very effective. The premise of the Bengali film was changed drastically by Srikanth Vissa and director Sudheer Varma, who also introduced an absurd conflict. The narrative is not effective.
Sudheer Varma made an effort to add "entertaining elements" to this suspenseful story. Therefore, we get to see Ravi Teja's comedy scenes with Faria Abdullah, Megha Akash, and Hyper Adhi for over half an hour in the beginning. However, instead of laughter, they bring on boredom. The director and writer have abandoned all sense of logic at this point.
The second half includes a pivotal turn that has to do with Megha Akash. It's puzzling how she could have "romanced" him into taking over her legal case. Hero Ravi Teja needed a heroine to sing and dance with, so the writers and director wrote this ‘romantic part’ forgetting about the logic and the plot twist in the second half. This shows how poor the writing in this film is.
The only time the film captures our attention is just before the intermission. The revelation of Ravi Teja's other side is interesting.
The big reveal in the film is formulaic. The title "Ravanasura" makes sense because Ravi Teja commits crimes under various guises, but the hero's motive doesn’t convince us.
Instead of presenting it as a dark thriller, Sudheer Varma tried to present it as a mass thriller, and the logic has gone completely out the window.
All in all, “Ravanasura” holds our interest in a couple of scenes, but it is weighed down by its own illogical plot twists and poor narrative. It neither thrills us nor entertains us.
Bottom line: No Thrill