Devara Movie Review

Devara - Part 1

Finally, the faithful audience of Jr.NTR get to see their hero as a solo lead in a movie after 6 long years (The last one had my name mentioned in it ;)).

Very few people are as versatile as Jr.NTR with an exceptional command of language, great range in acting, an impeccable body language, enviable dancing skills and not to forget he is TFI royalty. If #Pushpa ruled the jungles, #Devara rules the sea and hills. ( A potential crossover idea maybe :D )

Devara - My expectation Vs My experience.

Let me start off by saying - Devara is a big screen watch for the rich production and design values they have put in to create this world which makes it a pleasant to watch movie. The frames, the audio quality, the Vfx department have all done a good job and glad big budget movies are embracing technology to tell stories better. This one is being dubbed in multiple languages too but the most effective watch will be in Telugu.

I love commercial cinema but I absolutely admire story telling - A delicate balance of these two results in - "for the masses" , "for the critics" or for people like me who like a mix of both and push storytelling to the next level truly trusting the fans. 

Star power Vs Story telling.

This one factor called Fan service - many finer aspects of story telling are lost because the time for creating scenes to establish dynamics amongst different characters in a world we are not familiar is lost in elevating the hero as righteous and all powerful. It feels like you built a metro but not the last mile connectivity.

But when the intro reads "Man of masses" - the fan service takes the drivers seat and the storytelling is forced to rest. I admire Allu Arjun for this who pushes the story telling factor in his movies and gives in to the story and challenges himself as an actor. Jr. NTR on the other hand is known for passing good social messages true to his image. The day he breaks that and fuels the storytelling , he will set new standards for his fans.

In an over-simplified way the formulation of the movie is set by a few scenes:

The Hero entry scene, the interval block, a signature dialogues, the shocking reveal, some well choreographed fight scenes, heroine showed as an eye candy all this wrapped with a production values TFI can be proud of.

This story is about an place in hills where 4 clans who have individual specialties stay together and rule the seas and how these people act as pirates to aid private businessmen and how/why everything changes in the seas pre and post independence till the current 1990's where the movie actually starts. 

They have something called Ayudha puja( Worship of the weapons) amongst all clans which also gives way to some fights ( clans and fights like Black Panther ) to know which clan gets to have the divine blessings.

I loved some of the dialogue deliveries on courage, the banter between the ladies which provide for comic relief and I really enjoyed the BGM from Anirudh which truly was the 2nd best thing to keep the movie going. (though most tunes felt familiar). Shooting scenes around sea, the world building is a very fascinating aspect for me and I thoroughly enjoyed the production values and cinematography. I really wished to know more about their world, their clans and why they chose this profession, what are their clan specialties and their interactions with the outside world. I had to assume so many things about the main guy, his dynamics with people and what made him powerful, sensitive in the place he lived apart from constantly being the God. So many things were left unestablished.

Enter Saif Ali Khan who is one of the bad guys in this movie. He effortlessly navigates through his role constantly training, killing or conspiring with a wooden face for 12 long years. A man who did Omkaara deserved to be given many more layers to his role.

The Heroine role - Could have been so much more than an eye candy. Janhvi Kapoor who is not a bad actress debuts in Telugu and gets introduced only in the second half and "barely" gets 15 mins.( literally and figuratively). She has roots here and I really hope she is not treated like a 90's heroine in 2024.

The one song I've been listening to had the audience also singing along during the pause was a pure theatre experience. The other song was not even shown post credits. There is a person who is shown after 12 yrs and looks the exact same, whereas everyone around ages. Many minor things like this were overlooked as major focus was on the hero.

Many important characters are just functional characters like Prakash Raj and Srikanth whose sole purpose is to push the story forward with conversational dialogues amidst pan and zoom camerawork. They were severely under utilized. New characters are introduced in the second half but director clearly chose not to focus on them or build any sub plots that too when a sequel is promised to keep the audience go wow!

My biggest complaint as an audience who is paying extra premium to watch this on the first day was it starts off with a premise and is so loose ended when the movie ends that it felt like a forced part 2 marketing campaign. There are so many unanswered questions, an important character was killed and no explanation was given, evoked nothing and the story progressed. It felt like " Last 5 mins" during exam days where you just scribble and hastily finish the paper. Why are you not even answering something you started in this part ? There was not one proper closure of the main premise but we know what Part -2 could entail with the characters that are not killed.

A cricket team creates history if many players contribute consistently, but if only 2 people perform it is not a team that goes on to make history but might still win a few maatches. I expect generational stars like Jr.NTR to trust his audience and expand on the storytelling, but..as they say we know only the decisions they take but are not familiar with the choices they had.
That's a long-ish review of Devara without revealing much.

Man of the Match - Jr.NTR, his screen time is a boon and a curse for a movie like this.

2nd MVP - Anirudh for his music.

Watch it on the big screen for Jr.NTR , he sizzles in every frame!  P.s : ( If Devara ruled the hills and seas, thankfully the movie is not called Deverakonda :P) ( Devara had a son called Vara, Imagine Vara has a son now will he be called Ra) ( A heroes best friend , A women's strength on display apart from sensuality, the clan having a special character with a recall value , a song about their lives and world , the movie not closing by looping it back to the start like KGF were all that could have been done. Lastly, a video song so advertised was not even shown in post credits)