What’s it about?
A sum of ten thousand crores of rupees is being money laundered in India from Italy, which belongs to a state Home Minister (Mukesh Rishi). The home minister hatches a plan to buy MLAs with the money and dethrone the Chief Minister. Meanwhile, a criminologist Pooja (Meenakshi Chaudhary), goes to jail to interview a prisoner Mohan Gandhi (Ravi Teja), who is facing charges of killing his wife (Dimple Hayathi) and others. Why did he kill his wife and her parents? How is he inked with the politician’s money?
Analysis
Director Ramesh Varma begins the story of “Khiladi” with an intriguing setup – the hero facing charges of killing his wife and siphoning off money. Now that we have seen hundreds of movies where the hero has dual shades with a back story, we would easily guess that he may not have really killed his wife. But the initial setup raises interest as the writers and director have begun the story.
Ramesh Varma stuffs the first half with the usual template – an interesting setup, a long romantic thread on hero and heroine (Ravi Teja and Dimple Hayathi), and a pre-interval twist. There is a familiarity, but still, the proceedings are fairly engaging enough, thanks to some colorfully shot foot-tapping numbers. The twist is also neat. In fact, the pre-interval sequences are narrated quite interestingly.
Had Ramesh Varma and his writers have proceeded in the same way, the result might not have looked this bad. But for some strange reason, the team has relied more on twists and turns. The twists are easily guessable, and they keep on coming all through the second half, even at the climax part, we get to see two or three twists. That is not enough; there is a hint of a sequel. Shabba!
In this melee, the film has completely gone downhill, and it ends up a poor attempt to make a con story with no direction.
As usual, logic becomes a casualty.
Hero having dual shades is a regular feature, but here we get to see many other characters in the same manner. None of these characters make us root for them. The hero doesn’t have a purpose, either.
Ravi Teja has played the role with ease, he infuses energy into the bland role. Arjun gets a formulaic cop’s role. Both Dimple and Meenakshi have not shied of showing their skin liberally. Especially, Dimple has used the opportunity to expose her skin maximum. Anasuya also surprises us with her glamorous act. Vennela Kishore and Murali Sharma have done their parts well.
Devi Sri Prasad has come up with foot-tapping numbers. Three songs have worked on screens. Rich frames and lavish production values are worth mentioning.
Bottom-line: ‘Khiladi’ is a con drama that tries to bank on twists and turns and glamor of the heroines, but the flat narration and purposeless heroism have made it a dreary watch.
Rating: 2.25/5
By Jalapathy Gudelli
Film: Khiladi
Cast: Ravi Teja,Dimple Hayathi, Meenakshi Chaudhary, Anasuya, Arjun and others
Dialogues: Srikanth Vissa
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematography: Sujit Vaasudev, GK Vishnu
Editor: Amar Reddy
Producer: Koneru Satyanarayana
Director: Ramesh Varma
Release Date: Feb 11, 2022
