Veera Simha Reddy Movie Review: The film would be boring without Nandamuri Balakrishna’s dynamic presence
Veera Simha Reddy Movie Review: Nandamuri Balakrishna puts the film together and it’s truly a one-man show. The film also stars Shruti Haasan, Honey Rose, Duniya Vijay and Murali Sharma.
In the Telugu film industry, when one mentions the term ‘one man show’, Nandamuri Balakrishna’s name immediately comes to mind. The man in his sixties is one of the greatest entertainers the industry has produced in a long time. Over the years, scenes from his movies have served as memes on social media, but that hasn’t diluted or affected the passion he enjoys. All this applies to his latest release, Veera Simma Reddy, which repeats itself in a million of the same story set against the backdrop of Rayalaseema. Also Read: Pawan Kalyan makes his TV debut on Natamuri Balakrishna’s chat show
The film opens in Istanbul, where a group of foreigners enter an Indian restaurant serving Rayalaseema food. The restaurant is run by Indian-born Meenakshi (Honey Rose), who threatens to sell the property by the next morning. Cut to the next scene, where we see her son Jai (Balakrishna) dealing with the situation in a very predictable way – a fight scene. But this is not the best part of the film. The story soon shifts to Rayalaseema, where we are introduced to Jai’s father, Veera Simma Reddy (also played by Balakrishna), who rules Kurnool. He is the savior of his village and not a soul dares to speak to him. However, one Pratap Reddy (Duniya Vijay) longs to avenge his father’s death by killing Veera Simma Reddy, but so far all his plans have failed.
Over the years, Telugu filmmakers have used communalism as a backdrop to tell interesting stories. But what they fail to bring to the fore is the mentality behind the sectarian wars. Instead of understanding the psyche of the people who dedicated their lives fighting factional wars, filmmakers mainly focus on violence and use cinema as a medium to glorify it. A similar approach is followed in the film Veera Simma Reddy. The film is full of violence and some exquisitely shot action sequences, making it a treat to watch. As the central character, Veera Simha Reddy, Balakrishna holds the film together, which is truly a one-man show.
What really invests one in a film is not the story or the acting. The action sequences with SS Thaman’s electric background score that makes Veera Simha Reddy hugely likable are sheer madness that brings the big screen viewing experience. If it wasn’t for Balakrishna’s energetic screen presence that makes the most mundane scenes funny, this would have been a boring watch. Duniya Vijay is an interesting choice as the antagonist, but she doesn’t get to do anything other than scream her lungs out throughout the film. Varalakshmi Sarath Kumar is the only other actor from the supporting cast who gets a fleshing out role, a Neelambari-inspired role from Padayappa, which she pulls off effortlessly.
