Daruvu Movie Review

Actors every once in a while grow larger than their scripts and create for themselves a larger than life image. Some actors even succeed in doing so. Look back at the Shammi Kapoor era and you would find that he stretched his image to an extent that anything less or different was not acceptable. He was not numero uno but he had a niche and there he was the moghul. Bachchan also went through such a phase, when he was a tool in the hands of his directors who thought that the more ludicrous his doings, the better the chances of his success. It is not so much about talent, not about winning, certainly not award rave reviews and fixed awards. It is about acceptance. It is here that Ravi Teja enters the script.
Take his latest outing: Daruvu. Maroon pants, purple shirts, on the face defiance of gangs of guys, unbelievable heroics (even by filmi standards) blue and green terracotta, rebirth with convenient memory, every thing that you would normally shun. Yet you sit and lap it all – the delivery boy being: Ravi Teja.
The film is crude. It is loud on your eyes deafening on your ears, insulting on your intelligence and yet engaging. It may sound a contradiction but if you get to the theatre resigned to the brand that is Ravi Teja than you have what you expect. Also in the cast is Brahmanandam, who in a while has come up with a role that gives him more than a few minutes on screen. As the dance teacher he adds his brand of hilarity to the film. In fact given his exit, the film looses a good part of its punch and since this happens all too early, the audience does miss the veteran as the film proceeds. The others do not really matter: Tapsee, Shushant Singh, Darmavarpu, Siyaji Shinde, Jaya Sudha, Raghu Babu, Venella Kishore and the like who are part of the script do not matter. They are routine. Props actually.
One normally looks for script, story, presentation, editing and the like as factors that determine the tale and the film. Nothing this time though. This is brand Ravi Teja, lest you forget. One only hopes that he draws a line and the Goebel line stops some where. If only, if only, the actor does not get carried away by the exaggeration of the cut outs that market him or the scripts that have made him.
The beat requires a discipline, it demands a ceiling on the grotesque. There lies the future. Certainly not the present. Watch this film only if you are the Ravi Teja fan. Watch it also for Brahmanandam and MS Narayana. Do not forget to take your ear plugs with you.