Mega Star Chiranjeevi is getting ready to show his power as Bholaa Shankar. The film is a remake of Tamil hit Vedhalam and Meher Ramesh made changes to elevate the heroism of Chiranjeevi. The film's OTT rights have been bagged by Netflix and streaming will be after the completion of the theatrical run. Let us find out the fire power of Bholaa Shankar.
Bholaa Shankar is all about a person who goes all out for his sister and this lands him in trouble and the way he confronts his adversaries and eliminates them. Shankar takes up the job of a taxi driver in Kolkota to enable his sister Mahalakshmi (Keerthy Suresh) to pursue her higher education. When everything is going happily and all set to get her married to pilot Srikar (Sushanth), he finds himself in trouble regarding the mysterious kidnappings of young girls in the city. Where this leads to and what is the connection to advocate Lasya (Tamannaah) and Alexander (Tarun Arora) form the crux of the story.
Mega Star Chiranjeevi always works hard and is known for his commitment. His hard work and dedication is seen on the screen and he tried his best to entertain and enthrall all be it emotions, comedy, entertainment, action, stunts or dances. He did his best to elevate the scenes with his electrifying performance as usual but the director failed him on all fronts. Chiranjeevi looked extremely young and this delights all his fans and masses. He even danced with grace though his dance movements slowed down. Choreographers should be faulted for repeating the same dance moves in the song.
Keerthy Suresh is ok in the role of Chiranjeevi's sister. She performed well in the routine role laid with emotions. She expressed herself and is good on screen Sushanth played a key role and he is ok but did nothing significant in the film. He just adds one film in his name and that he shared screen presence with Chiranjeevi.
Tamannaah played the female lead. She played the role of a lawyer but it got nothing connected to the story. Tamannaah seems to be losing her milky white complexion and is now looking pale on the screen. Even she lost her slim physique and this is visible when she is flaunting her belly and wait. She looked odd in the songs.
Srimukhi and Rashmi Gautam got a screen presence with Chiranjeevi and they can rave about it but those scenes look cheap and exposed the taste of the makers. Murali Sharma, Sayaji Shinde,P, Ravishankar, Brahmanandam, Vennela Kishore, Raghu Babu,Bithiri Sathi, Satya, Getup Srinu tried to entertain with their comedy but failed as it is outdated. Tarun Arora played the typical antagonist role who boasts like a monster but mellows down before the protagonist. Others performed accordingly.
Bholaa Shankar's story readied by Meher Ramesh is the remake of the Tamil hit Vedhalam. Meher Ramesh claimed that he removed the cringe elements in the original and turned it more entertaining for Chiranjeevi fans in particular. But right from the start till the finish, Meher Ramesh failed to include even a single interesting and noteworthy scene that drew applause from viewers. Forget about movie lovers, even mega fans got shocked by such an outdated story.
The story is loaded with extremely routine and monotonous elements and had the film come in the 80s also, it wouldn't have clicked at the box office. Be it comedy, emotion, action, or romance, nothing excites even a single person. The first half is cringe and one expects something better from the second half, it turns out to be even cringer. The only saving grace is Chiranjeevi's towering presence which made viewers sit throughout the film.
Meher Ramesh failed with his story which turned out to be outdated and the screenplay and direction utterly ridiculous and childish to the core. Entertainment didn't evoke laughter, romance did not evoke feelings, sentiment scenes did not evoke emotions and action scenes did not thrill viewers. For the Bholaa Shankar debacle, Meher Ramesh should be made responsible.
Mahati Swara Sagar scored music for the film. He failed to utilize the golden opportunity by coming up with substandard scenes. Except for the song Bholaa Mania, none of the songs are foot-tapping or impressive. He followed the same pattern with the Background Music. He failed to elevate the scenes with his background music. He gave the same music and did not add value to the scenes and ended up turning loud. The cinematography of Dudely is just ok. It is nothing extravagant though they spent lavishly on the project. Marthand K Venkatesh who handled the editing seems to be at his wits end as to what to include in the story and what not as the scenes in the film are completely silly. Production values of AK Entertainment are good.
Altogether, Bholaa Shankar is an outdated entertainer. Mega Star Chiranjeevi presented Meher Ramesh with a golden opportunity to direct a remake. Meher's job was simple and he should show Chiranjeevi in a mass action entertainer. However, Ramesh failed completely even after getting the golden opportunity after a decade and presented a disaster of the first kind to Mega Star. He failed to prove the trust shown to him by Chiranjeevi. Meher Ramesh's writing is pathetic.
When Meher Ramesh was chosen as the director for Bholaa Shankar, fans got shivered and experienced nightmares as he earlier presented disasters to Ravi Teja in the form of Shock and NTR in the form of Shakthi. Bholaa Shankar turned out to be an insult to the talent of Chiranjeevi. Meher Ramesh failed with the so-called changes in the story and disappointed completely with the dialogues, script, screenplay, and direction. Everything turned out to be cringe to the core. Considering all these points, Cinejosh goes with a 2 Rating for Bholaa Shankar.