Ragada Movie Review

Behind the Movie Ragada: Off late Nagarjuna has been out of form and urgently needs a hit. Same is valid for Anushka and producer Shiva Prasad Reddy. Fresh from the success of ‘Bindaas,’ Veeru Potla is proved not just a superb story writer but also a good director. Well, let us see how far did Veeru Potla succeed in giving a new massy look for Nag in ‘Ragada’?

In the Movie Ragada: Satya Reddy uraf Kadapa (Nagarjuna) lands in city with a purpose. Soon impresses local goon GK (Dev Gill of Magadheera fame) and joins his team. GK has a strong opponent in Peddanna (Pradee Rawat) whose rowdy activities are looked after by Gangayya (Kota), Nanda (Sushanth), Bhagawan (Supreet) and Jayaram (Shravan). GK’s would be wife Sirisha (Anushka) falls instantly in love with Kadapa and tries to woo him with the help of darling Basava Raju (Brahmanandam).

GK and Kadapa plan their moves carefully, kill one by one in Peddanna’s troop, and finally remain with Nanda and Peddanna. In parallel we see a story of Ashta Lakshmi (Priyamani) and her family taking the shelter with Kadapa to save her family from Peddanna’s henchmen. With in no time, GK takes the side of Peddanna backstabbing Kadapa and here comes the twist where flashback of Kadapa is revealed. 

Kadapa uraf Satya Reddy’s mother Dr. Kamalamma (Venniradai Nirmala) is brutally killed by Peddanna and his brother Devender Reddy (Satya Raj). So, Satya is on a revenge taking process which is the ulterior motive of joining the team of GK. Here also come one more twist related to Sirisha and Ashta Lakshmi not much useful to the main story line. How did Satya hunt his final enemy Peddanna forms the climax.

Values of the Movie Ragada: Movie is simply a revenge drama. What makes Ragada interesting is intelligently knitted screenplay where in one doesn’t know the identity and real name of Kadapa till the interval. Veeru Potla maintained sufficient tempo throughout the movie except few parts of second half. To mention in specific, Veeru will get huge applause for extra ordinary dialogues which suited the body language of Nagarjuna 100%. Direction wise Veeru Potla was almost successful with typical designing of Nag’s Kadapa character, a rare mass feast which King missed in last two to three years. Cinematography by Sarvesh Murari was top notch and we don’t see anything more stylish than this for a movie of this content. Editing by Marthand K Venkatesh breathed the life without decreasing the pulse. Thaman provided awesome and loud background while two songs (1. Title Song and 2. Baba Sehgal) were rocking. Picturization of songs in costly sets or unexplored foreign locales lifted the output of average music. Production values of Kamakshi Arts are all time high and thanks to Shiva Prasad Reddy for exhibiting the uncompromised approach towards Nag.

Performance wise, Nagarjuna is Mr. Perfect. We don’t find even a single flaw in entire movie from his side. Special interest taken in selection of costumes, maintaining the body language and spelling the Kadapa accent worked in Ragada. Anushka was as usual hot like a BULLET while Priyamani is sweet like a CHOCOLATE. Both of them were given enough screen time and the glamour show is one of the best in recent times. Brahmanandam evoked enough laughs. Pradeep Rawat, Supreet, Sushanth, Shravan, Kota Srinivas Rao were at their routine but elevated in characterizations by dialogues of Veeru. Comedy performances by Dharmavarapu, Master Bharat, Sana were just average.

Out of the Movie Ragada: In simple, this is a dazzling comeback by Nagarjuna. Ragada is one man Nag’s show and Veeru Potla needs to be highlighted for effective presentation. Although Ragada is a formula movie; Veeru made it interesting by offering the twists and turns at needed times. One could easily find out that everything in the movie, either story or richness or action sequences or songs are designed just and just for the sake of strong comeback by Nagarjuna and he utilizes it. 

First half runs cool with stylish taking, comedy episodes, glamour show and the interest graph reaches peak with interval block. Second half we see peaks falling down drastically with a lag but Veeru tried his best to raise the curiosity quotient with two twists and turns which aren’t of course that useful to main story but served as negatives to entire output. 

Keeping the logics especially in climax episodes and too many fights away, Ragada is a mass masala entertainer which doesn’t disappoint any of the regular movie lovers. If you are in search of arguments and reasoning, Ragada will not be that appealing. Finally, Nag can keep the cash registers ringing in this last weeks of 2010, especially in B & C centres.          

Cinejosh Verdict of the Movie Ragada: First half Dhada Dhada - Second half Gada Bida. 

                                                                                Reviewed by Srivaas