‘Changure Bangaru Raja’ movie review: Karthik Rathnam and Satya shine in this partly-amusing Telugu crime comedy produced by Ravi Teja 

A personality in Changure Bangaru Raja retains getting referred to as ‘Andhadhun’ by acquaintances and strangers alike when he loses sight of his mission although he isn’t restricted by his imaginative and prescient. Within the preliminary parts of this Telugu crime comedy written and directed by Satish Varma, a German Shepherd is available in the best way of a truck, making it topple over and thus altering the course of occasions. The Andhadhun reference and this sequence is the author’s hat tip to Sriram Raghavan’s crime caper and a sign to viewers to anticipate the sudden. Changure Bangaru Raja is a far cry from Andhadhun’s brilliance, however manages to current {a partially} entertaining low-stakes crime comedy with a motley bunch of characters led by Karthik Rathnam, Satya and Ravi Babu.

Had Changure Bangaru Raja adopted a linear screenplay, it might have been a relatively easy whodunnit. The movie makes use of a non-linear construction to relate a set of occasions from three factors of view, and finally interconnect the smallest of incidents. 

The drama revolves round Bangarraju (Karthik Rathnam), the village mechanic who wears his perspective on his sleeve. When his arch rival Somanaidu (Raj Tirandasu) is discovered murdered, he’s the prime suspect. He should discover the wrongdoer and clear his title, and time is operating out. To make issues worse, he has already bruised the ego of the village police officer Sanyasi Rao (Ajay) and has overtly wooed the police constable Mangaratnam (Goldie Nissy). All this occurs in Narsipatnam the place, every time it rains, individuals drop all the things and flock to an space and start digging within the hope of discovering treasured stones! 

Two different characters whose journeys are integral to the happenings within the lifetime of Bangarraju are Tata Rao (Satya) and Gateelu (Ravi Babu). The three characters have a backstory that offers them a cause to do the issues they do. Suresh Varma delineates a few of these features extra strongly than the others. Whereas we by no means lose sight of the romantic relationships of the three characters, there are different sub plots – a dying mom urging her son to by no means promote the household land, the German Shepherd Veerabobbili (whose ideas we are able to learn because of Sunil’s voiceover) who desires to be handled higher – which might be mentioned sparingly however introduced again to tie up the free ends later.

Whereas Bangarraju and Tata Rao’s tales have ample road smartness and hilarious traces (dialogues by Janardhan Pasumarthi) to maintain us invested, the identical can’t be mentioned in regards to the story of contract killer Gateelu. Not all of the jokes about his Ghajini-like absent mindedness land. The romance additionally appears forcefit till the ultimate reveal. 

The way during which the tales of the three are interlinked, with the occasions being narrated from every one’s standpoint, and the supporting characters akin to a police constable whose investigation skills are relatively foolish and a tv journalist whose masala-laden reportage of the the happenings within the village add to the enjoyable. Whereas the primary hour packs in quite a lot of enjoyable by leveraging the eccentricities of the a number of oddball characters, the inventiveness wears out within the second hour. The forwards and backwards between the completely different factors of view will get repetitive and also you simply need the story to get forward. 

Karthik Rathnam makes good use of a full-fledged function and is efficient in portraying the perspective of an smug mechanic. He’s additionally good within the uncommon quieter moments when he realises the mess he’s caught in and conveys the sense of urgency to get out of the rut as issues maintain getting stacked in opposition to him. Satya will get a bigger bandwidth to unleash his comedian timing and he aces it. The writing of his romance can be self-aware and acknowledges the age hole between his character and that of Nithyasri. 

Cinematographer NC Sundar helps the movie keep true to its earthy milieu and Krishna Saurabh’s rating perks up the drama. The romance observe between Bangarraju and Manga might have been written with sensitivity relatively than resorting to the staid methodology of teasing. 

Changure Bangaru Raja begins nicely however squanders its potential to be a unusual, madcap crime comedy. The performances and a few of the humour save the day.