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 Poor narration, mediocre direction (Rating: 2.75/5)
Meher Ramesh, the protégé of Puri Jagannath, turned a director with ‘Kantri’ featuring NTR as hero. The film was a moderate hit. After ‘Kantri’ Meher Ramesh could not get any opportunity again. With Krishnamraju deciding to revive his Gopikrishna Movies banner, Meher Ramesh was roped in as director for the film and in a bid to grab a hit in the second innings, the presenter and director chose a proven subject like ‘Don’ for remake. Moreover, Prabhas who was in depression with no notable hits to his credit, was chosen as hero. However, Meher Ramesh’s poor narration and abrupt cuts in the subject made the film a mediocre, despite the successful track record of the subject in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages.
Billa (Prabhas) is an international smuggler of weapons and drugs. He always wants to remain an emperor. He is one of the most wanted criminal as he had dealings with the crooks of different countries. In fact, there is another kingpin behind the smuggling and that person called Sultan always stays behind the screen and gets the work done by Billa and his gang. Billa has three trusted lieutenants in his gang and one among them is a girl called Lisa (Namitha). A police officer Krishnamurthy from India reaches Singapore to catch Billa. One of the three trusted lieutenants Shekhar (Subbaraju) wants to give up and decides to separate from the gang. However, he gets killed in the hands of Billa. When his lover tries to get Billa arrested by the police also dies in his hands. Now, Maya (Anushka), the sister of Shekhar, decides to take revenge on Billa and joins the gang. At this juncture, Billa gets killed in the hands of Krishnamurthy. Nobody knows that Billa is dead except him. In order to get the details of Sultan’s gang and to know who is Sultan, Krishnamurthy plants his own man called Ranga (Prabhas), a look alike of Billa in his place. Ranga gathers all the information and passes it on to Krishnamurthy. When the gang members are about to gather at a place, the police raid the hotel with the tip off given by Ranga. Unfortunately, the police officer dies in the hands of Sultan. Who is this Sultan? How Ranga proved himself as an innocent and not Billa? Whether he was able to identify Sultan? Did Maya realize that the original Billa is dead and the one present is Ranga? Answers to all these questions form part of the remaining story. PERFORMANCE: The basic drawback of the film is the hero. Prabhas failed to deliver adequate performance in the lead role. Though he tried to appear stylish in Billa’s role, his body language failed to suit it. He remained very stiff and his six-pack body with well-toned muscles failed to impress the audiences due to lack of ease in performance. Nor he was able to do impressive dance despite the presence of three glamorous heroines. Hansika, though appeared in a couple of scenes did justice to her role and she shook legs for a special song and is okay in her role. Namitha played the sidekick of the hero. In fact it is a vamp character and she is also okay in her character. Anushka, who impressed with her performance in her recent release ‘Arundhati’ had a complete makeover in this film with oozing outfits. Almost all her costumes are very revealing and she is gorgeous in looks all through the film. Other artistes like Krishnamraju, Rahman and Jayasudha are okay in their roles.  TECHNICAL:
The production values of Gopikrishna Movies are good. Cinematography by Soundara Rajan is also good especially during chases and in capturing the beauty of the locales abroad. Music by Manisharma is not very impressive. Songs are not worth listening and the re-recording also could not elevate the mood of the audiences. As the songs are not melodious their choreography also remained average. The literary values of songs are also average. Dialogues penned by the director Meher Ramesh is another let down. They lacked punch for any of the characters. Despite high technical and production values and huge budget, the film failed to expect a hit. ANALYSIS: Any director had to show their individuality while presenting a subject on the screen. When it comes to a remake of a successful subject, it would be an easy task for the director. However, the director groped in dark and could not reach the expectations of the audiences as he chose to make alterations to the original story. As a result, he missed several scenes that could touch the hearts of the audiences with a pinch of sentiment. Poor narration, improper screenplay and wrong handling of the subject made the film an average rather a flop. Besides his improper narration, the mediocre performance by the hero added a salt to the wound and made the film boring. Cast: Prabhas, Anushka, Hansika, Namitha, Krishnamraju, Rehman, Supreet, Subbaraju, Anil, Aravind, Aditya Credits: Music – Manisharma, Lyrics – Ramajogaiah Sastry, Bhaskarabhatla, Meher Ramesh, Cinematography – Soundararajan S, Editing – Marthand K Venkatesh, Choreography – Kalyan, Action – Stun Siva, Art – AS Prakash, Presents – Rebel Star Krishnamraju, Story, screenplay, dialogues and direction – Meher Ramesh Banner: Gopikrishna Movies Pvt Ltd Released on: April 3, 2009 (This is the opinion of a person. If you have seen the movie and you think it is different please feel free to add your opinion on the movie and not on the writer)
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