Rajeev - The review

Ee Rajeev Gandhi Alla

Seeing the promos I was very excited about watching an out and out action movie in Kannada and that too with police touch. The promos are good no doubt. Except for the action and a superb performance as the action hero by Vijay Raghavendra, nothing seems to be good in the movie. This is what I felt after watching the movie.

The movie has good stars two good stars Vijay Raghavendra and Rakshita. The movie seems to bank only on the action oriented performance of Vijay who carries on the job well. The movie tells the story of bravery of 5 police officers of crime branch of Bangalore city and also about their crusade against rowdies, underworld, press and politicians.

The movie starts off well with good narration about the five police officers Rajeev Rai(Vijay Raghavendra), Shravya (Rakshita), Vivek, Musa and Bhiku who are working in Crime Branch Bangalore and their only motto is to free Bangalore from crime and their methods are very very bloody. Their main motto is pumping bullets into body of underworld people and rowdies. In the due course they confront with Dubai based underworld leader names Samson(Shobharaj) and his brother Bachchan. With their act, they become heroes in people's view but they face the ire of the lady Human Rights Commissioner. Their only support is their senior officer who would be shielding them. But once they come in the view of Human Rights Commissioner, he is forced to transfer them to normal police jobs. Here also they perform their duties with full sincerity and try to highlight the problems faced by Police Officers and Constables during their course of duty and bring these to the notice of their seniors. While they are busy with their normal police duties, the underworld activities of extortion etc., increase in Bangalore with Bachchan coming to Bangalore and creating terror. Even the Human Rights Commissioner's child is kidnapped for ransom and is killed and that's when she realizes their necessity in Crime Branch and they get back the job which they are good at! They continue their job of hunting down the underworld people and end up killing Bachchan after he kills Musa. That's when Samson is enraged and comes to Bangalore vowing to kill all of them. He hatches a plan to replace their supporter-the commissioner with his man. Also he plans to break their friendship and damage their career. Will he succeed in his intentions and how does Rajeev and his friends face this? Will they succumb to his plots or fight back is the main story.

With this there are sentimental moments wherein the relationship of Rajeev and his sister (Pavitra Lokesh) is brought about very well. Also, the love between Shravya and Rajeev is given some highlight. But what catches in the movie are its hard hitting dialogues which target towards the Press, Politicians and the Public. Two scenes are very catchy. One wherein the five officers confront the police saying they are doing wrong in accepting bribe quoting their low salary as reason and second is one wherein they confront their new commissioner calls their deceased friend is a mess and they should clean up the mess. Also finally there is a message by Ravi Belegere who puts question to the public about their role in making this society a better place to live by supporting the police by treating them as humans.

Speaking about the technicalities of the movie, the screenplay has a very fast pace which takes a beat with the two unnecessary songs. But I do agree that the songs are required to give a relief to the people from the blood bath all through the movie. One song is an item number which was quite unnecessary. The other one is a duet which I felt was quite out of frame. The music and background score by Sadhu Kokila are just ok and at times too loud to suit the action. Good camerawork to suit the action sequences is mindblowing. But I wonder if it was really required to use so much green filters while filming. The dialogues by Rajashekar and Ramesh are very hard hitting and sometimes very vulgar to invite lots and lots of beeps all through the movie. The dialogues where they speak about the status and real lives of police inspectors and constables, confrontantion with politicians explaining situation of police and their confrontation with their new commissioner after their friend's death are really good.

The direction by Ravi Srivatsa is good and he handles the narration very well. But finally what I wonder about is his intention behind the movie - whether to glorify police or to give a message that nothing can change here in this society and also that honesty in a policeman is bound to ruin him. Finally I came out of the theatre with a question myself that what the director was trying to prove.

Coming to performances, its clearly Vijay Raghavendra who steals the show with his action. He emotes well in his scenes with Rakshita and his sister. Rakshita does a good job as a police officer. Good to see her in such a serious role. But one thing which I noticed was she just disappears in action sequences while the other four are bashing the goons. Quite natural!!! J Shobharaj as Samson is always on phone in the movie fails to impress as the villain. Other three officers – Vijay, Nagashekhar and Hareesh Rai are just there doing their part. Pavitra Lokesh surprises with her act as Rajeev's sister. She proves that she is talented and needs better roles.

Talking about box office, I personally feel this might not get the family audience which is very much required because of this bloody action and (at-times) vulgar dialogues. Also it might take a back seat because of the other releases Shivrajkumar – Rakshita's "Thayiya Madilu" which is a family tear jerker and also Abhishek-Aishwarya starrer "Guru" which has got a good opening.

I finally feel that Ravi Srivatsa should have taken steps towards making it more watchable with the family. Actually I found exactly two ladies in balcony in the theatre where I watched the movie. That's what might affect its box-office performance very much.