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Coming after his first Rs 100 crore movie in a career spanning over 80 films, Ravanasura carries heavy expectations from Ravi Teja. Incidentally, the actor is also producing the movie, making the burden of expectations even heavier. It is an important film for director Sudhir Varma as well, who is known for stylish and entertaining thrillers.
The film’s title sequence shows the gruesome murder of pharma approval agency officer, Jaya Prakash (played by Sampath Raj). Ravanasura, however, begins on a comic note as we meet Ravindra (Ravi Teja), who is a junior lawyer and works for Kanaka Mahalakshmi (Faria Abdulla). Hyper Aadi plays his sidekick with the sharp tongue. Ravindra’s history with Lakshmi, and his escapades runs the story for some time. As one murder leads to another, it is revealed that a few men have been caught red-handed while committing murders, but have no memory of the act. Ravindra takes up Sampath’s case even as he falls in love with Harika (Megha Akash). Meanwhile, the case is assigned by the commissioner (Murali Sharma) to ACP Hanmantha Rao (Jayaram), who is two months away from retirement. The ACP finds many similar cases where accused claim that they don’t remember killing people. His investigation leads him to makeup artist Saketh Ram (Sushanth) – a prosthetics expert. Saketh himself is a victim here as his girlfriend Janaki (Daksha Nagarkar) has been kidnapped and he is being forced to help the criminal in creating masks of people, who are then framed for murder. Who is the mastermind, what is his connection with Ravindra and why does Ravi Teja proclaim himself to be Ravanasura form the crux of the rest of the film.
Though Shrikanth Vissa is credited with the story and dialogues, this film is inspired by 2019 Srijit Mukherji’s Bengali movie Vinci Da. The Bengali story has been adapted to suit the image of Ravi Teja and demands of the Telugu audience. Having said that, this is a straightforward story of a vigilante hero dedicating himself to killing the bad guys when they target his family. The screenplay keeps it tight, portraying the hero as a negative character who kills, kidnaps and rapes and proclaims himself to be evil–Ravanasura. However, once the threads are unravelled, we find that all of this is in service of the hero’s image and massy acts blown up to suit the bigger budget after the recent Rs 100 crore success.
Ravi Teja as usual gives the film his 100 per cent, but the story offers nothing new. Director Sudhir Varma fails to sustain the narrative as action takes over intrigue and suspense. Apart from Ravi Teja, Jayaram has the meatiest role and he does well.
Harshvardhan Rameshwar’s background score is impressive even though songs are routine mass numbers. The climax sequence in an entire glass set is picturised well by the cinematographer. Though seemingly perfect on paper, the film is likely to turn out an average performer for Ravi Teja.
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