Director : V. V. Vinayak
Producer : Ram Charan
Music Director : Devi Sri Prasad
Starring : Chiranjeevi, Kajal Aggarwal, Tarun Arora, Brahmanandam, Ali, Laxmi Rai, Posani etc
Story
Story wise, Khaidi No 150 is a photocopy of Tamil hit Kathithi. The movie begins with Rayalaseema backdrop, where corporate forces led by Agarwal (Tarun Arora) plot take over of rural lands in Neeruru village. They kill the farmers and collect their thumb impressions to snatch away farm lands. To highlight this problem, six farmers shoot a video of their mass suicide. Then Konidela Siva Shankar Prasad aka Shankar takes up cudgels on their behalf and begins to fight for their rights.
Meanwhile, Shankar’s look like Kathi Seenu runs away from Kolkata jail and reaches Hyderabad. He finds Sankar, who is badly injured in a car smash up. Seenu places his belongings by Shankar’s sides and runs away to Shankar’s village and begins to impersonate Shankar. Soon, he has a change of heart and continues Shankar’s battle. Cops arrest Shankar mistaking him to be Seenu and put him in jail. Shankar too escapes from prison and lands in Neeruru, where he sees Sreenu fighting his battle.
How Seenu achieves what Shankar wants to do and how the corporate forces are defeated is the story of the film.
Performances
Well! This is Chiru film all the way. He proves that even after staying away from the cameras and arc lights for over a decade, he has not lost his Midas touch. His acting stamina and energy levels are amazing. He manages to portray the variation in the two roles that he essayed. His dance movies are sure to give a complex to the present crop of heroes.
He also does his trade mark Veena dance with aplomb. Kajal is cute and is essentially limited to songs. Villain Tarun Arora is stylish, but one feels the director should have further exploited his capabilities. Ali as Parvathi, Brahmi as Doberman, Raghubabu as cook and Posani as Borabanda Bujji have done their bits. The others do not really have much scope to act.
Technical
All the technical wings have excelled. Ratnavel’s cinematography is not up to the mark, locations in the songs are all old ones. Songs are very good. DSP’s music is foot-tapping. But, RR could have been better in emotional scenes. Few scenes involving Brahmi, Ali and Chiru could have been chopped off. Ram Laxman and Kannan had used the same stunts used in Tamil films. Dialogues by Paruchuri, Vemareddy and Burra Sai Madhav have flashes of brilliance, but they are few and far between. Some dialogues are excellent.
Vinayak did not deviate from the plot and tried nothing new. One gets a feeling that the Kathithi feel is missing in Khaidi. Similarly, Vinayak is known for his action scenes. But, Khaidi doesn’t show that magic. Though there was a possibility of accelerating plot narration, the director did not go for them. On the whole, Khaidi does not swerve from Kathithi plot.
Plus Points : Chiru, Storyline
Minus Points : Villain role, Climax, Comedy, Cinematography
Analysis
It is crystal clear that the unit did not take any risks and made the Telugu version look like an exact copy of the Tamil original. Brahmanandam’s comedy episodes have been brought in, but their fail to tickle the funny bone. In fact, Brahmi episode slows down the pace of the film. The first half is mainly about Chiru-Ali-Brahmi scenes and Kajal Chiru scenes. The second half is gripping and has lot of action. The story becomes all the more interesting when Shankar reaches the village after escaping from Kolkata jail. Cherry sparkles in Ammadu Kummudu song and the VV Vinayak does not deviate one bit from the original story.
Verdict : It's a good comeback of Chiru but not the best. Well, it glitters but as they say, all that glitters isn't gold.
Filmybuzz.com Rating : 2.5/5
