‘Kick’

Raviteja is known for his style. Especially he maintains perfect comedy timing and many of his films were proved hits because of his performance mixed with comedy. However, his combination with Ileana was a disaster in ‘Khatarnak’. The excessive dose of comedy and the unnecessary exposure of the heroine was said to be the reasons behind the failure. Surender Reddy, who shot into limelight with ‘Athanokkade’ which is a blockbuster, failed to deliver a hit on those lines in his second and third films. In order to regain his image, he tried his best with the help of Raviteja and tested his luck with Ileana. But for the poor narration of the first half, the film remained an average flick.

Kalyan (Raviteja) has a typical set of mind. He always wants something which gives him a kick. Whatever he does, he believes that it should have the kick and he believes that one had to feel proud for what he is doing instead of routine work. That was the reason, why he could not settle in any particular job. He always wants something special and he feels that his heart should feel some kind of satisfaction while doing some work. Once he comes across Nayana (Ileana) and she learns from Kalyan’s friend that he was like that right from his childhood. Surprisingly, Nayana’s sister (Ashika) falls in love with him and she explains her one-sided love with him to Nayana. The latter goes to Kalyan and tells him to keep off from her sister. Kalyan agrees to that saying he would keep off from her sister but would remain Nayana’s friend.

Though Nayana refuses to befriend with Kalyan, she gets attracted to him for no reason. She is unable to judge whether she is hating him or loving him. Finally, she settles to befriend with him. However, after learning that Kalyan cheated her about his job, she chides him and leaves for Malaysia. Her father (Benarjee), who is in Malaysia, fixes her alliance with a police officer Kalyan Krishna (Shyam). Nayana reveals all her love and friendship with Kalyan to Kalyan Krishna and the latter likes her open-mindedness and agrees to marry her. In fact, Kalyan Krishna reaches Malaysia to nab a big thief, who was very intelligent and robs only noted personalities, who appear in the media the earlier day. Once, the thief challenges Kalyan Krishna and gives him a clue ‘Loser’.

The intelligent police officer decodes the clue and understands that he left for Malaysia on RE504 flight. In Malaysia, the robber escapes with black money from a minister. However, the Kalyan Krishna chases him and injures him in a shoot out. Who is the robber? Why he is stealing money? Why he robs only noted personalities and their unaccounted money? What happened to the love between Nayana and Kalyan? Did Nayana marry Kalyan or Kalyan Krishna? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

PERFORMANCE:

Raviteja is in his usual best and lived in the character. Though the comedy part went a little overdose in the first half, the audiences enjoyed to some extent. His performance in the second half is nice to watch. The director chose the entire first half to establish the hero’s characteristics and the second half for action part. Ileana filled the glamour slot. He performed yoga and showed her prowess for a few minutes with her exercises. She appeared a little stout in this movie. Though she too tried to mix comedy in her performance, she failed to express it through her body language. She is okay in duets and the choreography of duets gave her good scope to expose her glamour. Especially the camera eye could not miss to capture her bellybutton and waist in most songs. Another notable character in the film is the debutant Shyam. Though he is a newcomer, he gave good performance and the director too gave him adequate footage on par with Raviteja. If he could improve his body language a little further, he could settle well in the Telugu film industry. Other artistes including Sayaji Shinde, Chalapati Rao, Jayaprakash Reddy, Kota Srinivasa Rao did justice to their respective roles. Comedy tracks with Venumadhav, Ali, Brahmanandam are not very impressive.

TECHNICAL:

Surender Reddy once again used the same old technique of narrating the story through flashback episodes. Though he moulded the story well on the celluloid and gave a message through the film that the government devised several schemes to benefit people, it neglected the children and one had to come for the rescue of such destitute children. Especially the dialogues that were aimed at criticising the political parties for a few minutes got good applause. The hero chides a minister saying, ‘The government is providing rice at Rs 2 per kilo which made them to sit idle instead of working hard.’ Again he says, ‘The government turned a blind eye towards children suffering from diseases just because they have no voting rights.’ Such dialogues earned instant applause. The story by Vakkantam Vamsi, the dialogues by Abburi Ravi are okay. The camera was handled by Rasool Ellore and he captured the beauty of Malaysia with his camera eye.

ANALYSIS:

With no notable hit films of any big hero are running in theatres, Raviteja’s ‘Kick’ may get good response as it has hilarious comedy in the first half and action in the second half. But, the nagging first half tested the patience of audiences. Surender Reddy stretched the first half beyond limits making the film boring. However, the story picks up momentum after the interval bang and the film turns quite interesting from then onwards. Songs by A Thomas were average.

Cast: Raviteja, Ileana, Ashika, Shyam, Brahmanandam, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Venumadhav, Ali, Sayaji Shinde, Chalapati Rao, Surya, Jayaprakash Reddy, LB Sriram, Pruthvi, Duvvasi Mohan, Nalini, Prabha and others

Credits: Story – Vakkantam Vamsi, Dialogues – Abburi Ravi, Camera – Rasool Ellore, Action – Vijay, Lyrics – Sitarama Sastry, Music – S Thomas, Art – Narayana Reddy, Presents – K Achireddy, Producer – Venkat, Screenplay and direction – Surender Reddy.

Banner: RR Movie Makers

Released on: May 8, 2009