Winner review, Sai Dharam Teja winner telugu movie review rating

winner movie review

Actor Sai Dharam Tej, who bagged a big failure with his last film, is confident of make amends with his latest film ‘Winner‘ which is  released today (on Feb 24th). The film also stars Rakul Preet and Jagapathi Babu in crucial roles. Young and talented Gopichand Malineni is the film’s director.Winner did a solid pre release business worldwide, which is the highest in Sai Dharam Tej’s career. Let us see if Winner has the potential to emerge as a winner at the box office and bring Sai back to form.

Story:

Siddhu (Sai Dharam Tej) gets separated from his loving father Mahendra Reddy (Jagapati Babu), at the age of 5, in a conspiracy hatched by his grandfather (Mukhesh Rushi) who is a ruthless businessman. After being forced to run away from home, Siddhu develops aversion towards horse races which is the root cause of his separation from the family. On other hand, for several years Mahendra relentless tries to find his runaway child. Meanwhile, Siddhu grows to become a journalist and also falls in love with Sitara (Rakul Preet)

Siddhu reaches out to Sitara’s family with a marriage proposal but her father fixes her alliance with Son of Mahendra Reddy ( Jagapati Babu). Siddhu is flabbergasted, realising that Aadi (Thakur Anoop Singh) impersonated and settled with his family as a returned son.

Sitara’s opposition stalls her marriage with Aadi. Her father (Actor Suresh) throws a challenge to Siddhu and Aadi – Whoever wins the prestigious derby (as a jockey) will gets his daughter as well.
Rest of this absurd story is about how Siddhu , a novice jockey ,wins over a seasoned professional Aadi

Performances:

Sai Dharam Tej acted with ease compared to his previous films but the dances choreographed for him in this film are not great. His dancing abilities are underutilized. Rakul Preet Singh is super glamorous and her well maintained physique is a good fit for the athlete role. Jagapathi Babu, Mukhesh Rushi are adequate in key character roles. Comedian Prudhvi has excelled in the role of powerful police officer “Singam Sujatha”. His roaring mannerisms kept the audience split their sides with laughter. Vennela Kishore as Siddhu’s sidekick is an average. Ali as a horse trainer, Peter Hein could evoke comedy to certain extent.

Popular TV comedian Bitthiri Satthi’s cameo was special attraction in first half. Popular anchor Anasuya sizzled in an item song, she did just fine. All in all, the director failed to utilize the star cast at his disposal.

Technical Details:

Winner’s USP is the production values which look quite grand. It could have costed a bomb for the Producers Nallamalupu Bujji and Tagore Madhu. Cameraman Chota K Naidu has presented the film with very good visuals. Music by S SThaman is pretty average. Editor has done decent work.

Analysis:

Winner movie is an out and out directorial failure. Director Gopichand Malineni has done a decent job in setting up versatile backdrop theme for the movie. He also succeeded in setting up comedy tracks well. However, he could not narrate this clichéd story with minimum required emotions. If he tried to engage the audience in the second half, he would have emerged as a WINNER. Rather he focused on visual grandeur which he attained, but the movie lacks a proper script.

Positives:

• Lavish budget (It is surprising to see so much being spent on a mid-range hero )
• Three Songs looked good on screen
• Prudhvi’s comedy in first half and commercial Elements in first half
• Sai Tej and Rakul’s acting are fine
• Horse Race backdrop gives some freshness to regular Audience

Negatives:

• Father sentiment which is the crux of the film did not work at all.
• The logic of a grandfather who thinks a father can concentrate on business, if he is detached from his child is ridiculous.
• Tollywood should do away with the concept of wedding the heroine to whoever wins a challenge.
• There are hardly any scenes which carry the required emotion
• Poor second half and a superb star cast wasted

Verdict:

The first half of Winner is good but the poorly made second half makes this film a below average one.  At a glance, the movie had all elements to become a real winner, but it failed to become one because of the execution failure. Watch this routine commercial entertainer only for the grandeur, glamour and comedy.

Telugu360 Rating 2.5/5

Release Date : Feb 24th, 2017
Director : Gopichand Malineni
Music director: S. Thaman
Producers: Nallamalupu Bujji, Tagore Madhu
Cinematography : Chota K. Naidu
Starring : Sai Dharam Tej, Rakul Preet Singh, Jagapati Babu