RK.Sagar endeared himself to all with his performance on small screen in soap operas like Mogali Rekulu and Chakravakam. He had been testing his luck on the big screen and after a gap of four years,he is coming with a thriller The 100. The 100 OTT deal is yet to be finalised. Let us see whether Sagar thrilled viewers with The 100 or not in the theatres.
The 100 story revolves around a diligent police officer and how he overcomes the challenges while solving the mysterious murders. ACP Vikranth (RK.Sagar) after taking charge of Shamshabad Police Station decides to crack the mysterious murder case which he encountered during his training.
As he proceeds with the investigation, he unravels various shocking developments. Where this leads to and how it is connected to and what role Software Company CEO Vallabh (Tarak Ponnappa), SI Vikranth's mother psychologist, Dr.Latha (Kalyani Natarajan), Vidya (Dhanya Balakrisha), beautiful girl Aarthi (Misha Narang), Aarti's mother Lakshmi (Lata Gopalaswamy) and others form rest of the narration.
Rk.Sagar put in lot of effort for his role. He transformed his look and physique for the role and this is seen on the screen. His hard work is there for everyone to see and he also enacted few high octane stunts to thrill his fans. He looked at ease with his physique in the role of the ACP. He sported the serious look and gaze that is required for the cop. He delivered dialogues accordingly. However, he should improve his expressions and emotions and try to show variations accordingly to reach the next level of stardom.
Misha Narang looked cute and homely and beautiful in the traditional attire. She got limited screenpresence. She sported the pain and grief required for her character accordingly. Dhanya Balakrishna is ok in the role of Sagar's friend. She got good role. Tarak Ponnappa looked menacing on the screen with his personality and expressions. He made a good impact.
VV.Giridhar is good in the role of the SI and got good screen presence. He complimented Sagar well on the screen. Kalyani Natarajan and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy emoted well in the roles of the mothers of the lead pair, respectively. Others like Anand, Vishnu Priya, Balakrishna, Jayanth, Vamshi Nekkanti and Temper Vamsi performed according to their roles.
The 100 story is penned by director Raghav Omkar Sasidhar. He decided to thrill viewers with a gripping crime investigation showing RK.Sagar in a completely different role. He succeeded in his attempt in showing RK.Sagar in the role of a police officer. It seems for the story he drew inspiration from other gripping thrillers like Karthi's Khaithi and others.
Though there is nothing wrong in it and he started the investigation in the right earnest, showing it in an interesting manner, he quickly loses plot with the romantic angle and other scenes and even during the investigation, the proceedings turned out to be repetitive instead of gripping. The slow pace and the serial like proceedings decreased the interest levels among viewers. The film's first half ends on a decent note setting the tone for the second half.
The second half is once again loaded with predictable elements and lack of thrill factor robbed the viewers of the excitement. He has taken many cinematic liberties and the missing logics with pretty below average screenplay and direction impacted the film's final narration.
Harshavardhan Rameshwar's music is ok but he elevated the scenes with his background music. The background music is thumping and added value to the narration though at times it became unidimensional. The cinematography of Shyam K Naidu is good and he showed the scenes in a natural and realistic way. Editing of Amar Reddy Kudumula is ok. It could have been better as there are many scenes that impacted the pace of the narration. Dialogues are average and production values are good.
Altogether, The 100 promises much but fails to deliver on the thrills. RK.Sagar's hardwork and dedication is seen on the screen and the honesty of director Raghav Omkar Sasidar looked good. However, for all their efforts, The 100 turns out to be a below average predictable thriller. A little fine-tuning of the script, doing away with the illogical scenes, strong characterisations and interesting investigation angle along with racy screenplay would have taken the film to another level. Considering all these aspects, Cinejosh goes with a 2.25 rating for The 100.