Every now and then, a few Tollywood directors keep springboarding their old ideas into new formats with the aid of an engaging screenplay and massive doses of entertainment. For Sampath Nandi, “Bengal Tiger” has been such an opportunity before he gets busy giving finishing touches to the sequel of Gabbar Singh. Lucky for ageing mass matinee idol Ravi Teja, Tamannah and Raasi Khanna that the director who is a B.Pharmacy graduate mixes an age-old formula of a son taking revenge on the villain who usurped his most precious “gift” into an enjoyable feast of commercial fiction with all the punctuation marks of romance, comedy, masala, emotions and action.
The story is not dramatic: Aakash Narayan lives in a village with his brothers and extended family. In an arranged marriage proposal where he falls for a girl, Ravi Teja is challenged by the girl to become so famous as to be covered by media. Ravi Teja fancies the idea and soon becomes famous first by pelting stone at a popular politician Shinde in a rally, later a security guard to a home minister (Rao Ramesh) and finally as a prospective son-in-law of a Chief Minister (Bomman Irani). But the story has an unusual twist at the interval and a second half that pulls the drama to a fitting climax with a flashback. A bit of drama and romance with two ladies later and many fights later, we get a climax that justifies the title of “Bengal Tiger”.
In 151 minutes, Sampath Nandi takes us on a larger-than-life rollercoaster of emotions with brisk screenplay, stylish presentation, and an energy to show routine fare in new light. After the debacle of “Kick-2”, Ravi Teja gets comfortable in his skin with a different body language and subdued acting. As a mass entertainer who can combine the crassness of a Dada Kondke and the classy appeal of an Amitabh Bachchan, Ravi Teja cracks the code of success after a gap in this film. From punchy one-liners to iconic stunts, from serenading two demure-looking heroines to egging on Pridhviraj and Posani Krishna Murali, Ravi Teja gives us a taste of alround entertainment and proves why he still means business. But you get a feeling that in an attempt to mask his age, Ravi Teja’s face looks young with a surreal lustre that resembles a photoshopped image of his face. For a change all the characters who share the screen with him spark off a furore on screen. Pridhviraj as a wannable superstar wins laurels for dominating the comedy in first half, Posani sizzles in both the halves with a different avatar of a Pandit. Brahmanandam shows up but his bravado doesn’t fire up the same way that his combo shots with Ravi Teja used to do in the past films. It is unthinkable for Bomman Irani to accept a script like this in Tollywood after “Attarintiki Daaredi” but I guess this is more out of desperation than enthusiasm even though the role is full of substance that he is known to deliver in any character. Tamannah and Raasi Khanna both cannot act and their roles are reduced to being lovers who get together for a good cause – that sounds more polygamous in the end. Think of polygamy, that is a deplorable characteristic of Tollywood films and the society thrives in it. Between the two, Tammannah always looks great in Sampath Nandi films because of special emphasis on colorful costumes but in this film the makeup is in excess. Raasi Khanna despite her plump looks has a better range of scenes than Tamannah and in some scenes has a better screen presence.
Music by Bheems and BGM by Chinna are impressive though melody is lacking in all the songs – something unusual in Ravi Teja’s films despite the mass-beat flavor in his songs. Despite two different composers for music and BGM, there is a sync between the tracks more because Chinna uses the title song by Bheems as an idiom that repeats throughout the action and punch scenes. Editing by a veteran Gautham Raju actually sets the film apart in commercial entertainment because most of the crucial scenes make the story-telling quite fluent except a bit in the climax. Cinematography is an asset to the film – and Sampath uses taut jumpcuts to show us some fabulous visuals of Hyderabad, Switzerland and village life. There are several moments in the film which give a wow feeling on the imagery of daytime and nightly visuals that looked fresh.
Stunts by Ram Lakshman are good in the first half but fatigue enters by the second half; by climax, you want to get up and leave. In spite of two heroines, director has taken care not to repeat more than one song with each heroine besides the universal “joint” song. Production values stand out and producer Radhamohan must be one of the most hands-on producers who invested so much to make an ordinary story pop out extravagant visuals. What jars the film is too many references to Pawan Kalyan, even exaggerated claims that PK is bigger than Rajanikanth. At many places, there are overt references to Pawan Kalyan, Chiranjeevi which make the director’s love for the family obvious. This makes Sampath Nandi no different than Boyapati Sreenu who doesn’t let opportunity pass on extolling NTR family. From references to Bahubali, Mahesh Babu and CM Naidu, Sampath takes a dig at almost everybody. But the story is still a remix version of one of Chiranjeevi’s old films in the 80s. It appears Sampath Nandi’s films follow the same pattern. The sooner he lets go of the formula approach of the 80s, the better his chances of becoming a director of versatile range – of which he is fully capable of. His strengths in presenting a cinema glamorously with new ways of thinking, however, may get him more stars to approach him.