Movie Review: 'Ustaad Bhagat Singh'

Cast: Pawan Kalyan, Sreeleela, Raashi Khanna, Parthiban, K.S. Ravikumar, Rao Ramesh, Prabhas Seenu, Praveen, Satyam Rajesh, Gautami, and others

Music: Devi Sri Prasad

Background Score: Thaman

Screenplay: Dasaradh, Ramesh Reddy

Producers: Naveen Yerneni, Y. Ravi Shankar

Story, Dialogues, Direction: Harish Shankar

The combination of Pawan Kalyan and Harish Shankar has delivered a stupendous success like Gabbar Singh. After a long gap, the combo has come up with Ustaad Bhagath Singh and amidst huge expectations, the film has hit cinemas today. Let’s see how the film lived up to it.

Story:

Ustaad Bhagat Singh (Pawan Kalyan) is an orphan taken care of by his teacher Chandrasekhar Rao (KS Ravikumar), and the latter gets into politics, becoming a Chief Minister of Telangana. In a bid to grab the throne, Nalla Nagappa (Parthiban) stages an attack on the incumbent CM, and sits there. At this juncture, Bhagat Singh jumps into the scene to tackle the situation. What happened to this feud with Nagappa and Bhagat's flashback, all form the rest of the story.

Narrative-Analysis:

Very rarely do we see fresh stories in the films of star heroes, but even with a routine setup, proper elevations and fan moments, coupled with commercial elements make it a paisa vasool film. If both fans and the mass audience connect to such content, the movie becomes a blockbuster. Harish Shankar tried to carve Ustaad Bhagt Singh in the same fashion. However, this time he hasn’t found a story like Dabanng, nor is the director in a super form. With his own version of the story, Harish Shankar tried to pull off this template-driven film with lots of fan moments. However, the film never gives that wow feeling, though we cannot say that the 2.5-hour narrative is bad. But it gives only an okayish feeling.

When it comes to star heroes, there’s no need to cook up some new stories, but old stories with a new treatment would result in a blockbuster. That’s what happened with Pawan’s last outing #OG, which has a routine story, but the fresh treatment and visualisation by Sujeeth has induced goosebumps to fans. Even the average movie lovers also felt satisfied. However, though people don’t expect such stylish making from Harish Shankar, the director himself hasn’t reached the entertainment bar he has set with previous outings. Though he delivered a top notch outing with Dabangg remake earlier, this time his self-cooked story didn’t work out. He followed the routine template of a hero, his flashback, a quarrel wtih a villain and the ensring climax. Due to Pawan leaving his serious avatar and bringing back his own vintage mannerisms, some sequences worked out. Even his dances and dialogues have given the needed kick.

A medley sequence with some songs of other heroes is routine but impressive. Similarly, the hero’s romantic track with Sreeleela also clicked. Though it didn’t feel fresh, it delivered. Especially the unexpected Tholiprema song worked out magic. Also, the sequence where the hero goes to the villain’s house in the flashback has created a huge impact, along with Harish Shankar’s punch dialogues. While the first half felt average, the graph turned out to be intense in the second half. On the whole, the film is a not-bad types, though the climax felt very average. The film is neither fresh nor has wow-factor, but not boring either. For fans, Ustaad is worth the ticket.

Performances:

As the film is carved with the goal of enthralling fans, Pawan Kalyan did everything in his capacity to live up to it. The fun touch, and entertaining character, along with mannerisms and dance steps for medley songs of heroes like Chiranjeevi, Mahesh, Jr NTR and Ram Charan worked out well. Pawan stuffed the role with lots of energy, thus making it work. Though Sreeleela looks a little underage opposite Pawan, she does well. Raashi Khanna is also good in the role of Sloka, while she provided the glamour element. Parthiban got a routine villain role, despite being a talented actor. Even KS Ravikumar looks routine, while Rao Ramesh’s role was never designed to excite. Other than that, there are no great roles and performances in the movie.

Technicalities:

The moment we hear about the Gabbar Singh combination, expectations automatically pile up on the songs, but Devi Sri Prasad’s music is just average. Collar Ey Ehtara and Dekhlenge Sala bring some momentum, though. Thaman’s background score flows in a routine commercial style only, while the loudness is jarring in a few places. Production values are very good. The screenplay by Dasaradh and Ramesh Reddy, along with Harish Shankar, isn’t new, but the director runs the show on Pawan and the elevation scenes, while the dialogues worked out well. Though he hasn’t shown Pawan in the #OG range, it impresses fans. Nowhere, Harish’s conceiving of scenes sounds fresh, however.

Finally: Ustaad Bhagat Singh, fully fans stuff!

Rating: 2.5/5