After scoring back to back decent hits Khakee and Chinnababu, Karthi is coming up with an action adventure romantic thriller road film Dev where he romanced Rakul Preet Singh for the second time. Will Karthi continue his success streak? Will it be an adventurous ride for movie buffs?
Dev (Karthi) is an adventure craving guy who equally acknowledges his two of chuddy buddies and father Rama Lingam (Prakash Raj). This guy is forced to love someone and he falls flat for Meghna (Rakul Preet Singh) when he first sees her pics on Facebook. Meghna, on the other hand, is a more confused, disturbed, selfish and workaholic business woman who hates men owing to her personal experience with dad. Dev sincerely tries to impress Meghna who prolongs her decision. And when she starts adoring him, she with her possessiveness hurts Dev. Differences crop up between them and Meghna leaves to US. Will they ever unite? Will Dev accomplish his dream of climbing Everest Mountain in these circumstances?
Director Rajath Ravishankar made Dev as an action adventure romantic thriller road film. Blending of these many genres perhaps confused Rajath who has come up with a half baked subject with flat and boring narration. Individually, he showed friendship, romance and adventurous acts quite convincingly. But, the process of unifying all these elements will test our patience. It was definitely not an honest attempt from Rajath whose screenplay is as confusing as the female lead character played by Rakul. However, there are some good moments which were actually dealt maturely. The episodes of Dev impressing Meghna in road trip introducing her the real happiness is surely best part. Nonetheless, the conflicting point to divide Dev and Meghna to unite them only in the end is routine and ridiculous.
Rajath Ravishankar, however, got good backing from his technical team. R Velraj’s cinematography is spotless, wherein BGM by Harrish Jayraj is captivating. Songs too are pleasing to ears. Editor Anthony should have chopped many tedious sequences. VFX work is below par. Production values are high in standard.
Onto Performances, Karthi packs a punch as an adventure loving person who leads life in his own terms. Apparently, he has fully enjoyed doing the film as his glee is transformed through his character. Rakul Preet Singh has got the role which has enough scope for her to perform. But, she with her over the board acting brings down the strength of the role. And, she with lean structure didn’t look as gorgeous as in her previous films. Prakash Raj and Ramya Krishna made their presence felt. The friends’ batch is a value addition. Other artists are okay in their roles.
Karthi
Dialogues
Cinematography
Screenplay
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Rakul Preet
Road thriller and adventurous films are rarely made because an engaging screenplay with precisely taking can only please viewers. Director Rajath Ravishankar is well aware of the risk involved in the subject he chose. But, he with an intention of pleasing youth added another facet called romance which indeed spoiled the main objective. He divided film into three parts to show characterization of Dev- his adventurous life journey with besties, romantic life with his soul mate and then fulfilling his biggest dream after his heart is broken.
First half begins on an interesting note with security teams searching for a mountaineer Dev who goes missing due to avalanche during his quest to trek Everest Mountain. The VFX work to show the Everest and avalanche is awful and of low quality. In no time, as the story goes back few months, there is another introduction for Dev who dares his friends for an adventure on their birthday. The friends and their bonding is pleasant. Then another chapter in this happy go lucky guy begins with he happens to meet his soul mate in Meghna. Things slow up from here on with Dev making efforts to grab the attention of Meghna. Until intermission where Meghna introduces her anger and uncertainty to Dev, nothing really excites us.
Latter half begins on the same pace as Dev makes his mind to meet Meghna in Mumbai driving his sports bike for over 1000 Kms. Thankfully, here we get to see some magical moments with Meghna exploring the real happiness in her journey with Dev. But, it doesn’t take much time to spoil our mood. Like usual, Meghna troubles Dev with her possessiveness, resulting in their break-up. Then, the last chapter is all about Dev fulfilling his dream of trekking Everest. But, the scenes appear unrealistic owing to poor graphics work.
All in all, Dev is a half baked film with tedious narration. Director lacked clarity and he botched completely to amalgamate so many elements. Though there were some pleasing moments, they are not enough for us to watch patiently all the way through. Those who love ‘boring’ films would love this one. CJ goes with 2.25 stars and the film hardly has any chances to shine at box office.