Faction violence with a sensitive twist

Faction politics with its undertone of horrific violence and blood-letting has been a go-to theme for many directors in Telugu cinema. Nearly two decades ago, it was Jr NTR’s uncle Balakrishna, who gave it an extended lease of life with a series of films on the Rayalaseema ambience which went on to capture the box-office, one after the other. The nephew continues the trend with aplomb with this week’s release.

Sixteen years after his first ever Seema film ‘Aadi’, Jr NTR returns with his ‘Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava’ on the same story line. In a quick run through, the background for his character and the shape it is about to take throughout the two-and-a-half hours and more flick is established as bodies fall on both sides of the rival camps, which includes the hero’s father (Naga Babu) and relatives.

Director Trivikram takes the female viewpoint into this violent interpretation of power politics and brings in the women characters into the forefront one by one, from here on. Heeding to his grandma Supriya Pathak’s advice who says a real man eschews violence rather than encouraging it, the hero decides to move out of the violence-struck village and heads to Hyderabad.

Of course, nothing stops all of a sudden as the avenging rivals seek him out even after he decides to adopt a low profile living as an errand boy to the heroine (Pooja Hegde), an Anthropology student with a study project on the reasons behind faction vendetta. Both their goals get enmeshed as the hero benefits from her counselling and he begins establishing his peace overtures.

The surviving bad man (Jagapathi Babu) however has his own reasons as to why he does not want any other options other than continuing the mayhem which he has been lording over. How the protagonist achieves his objective and how he is helped along by the affected women of the victim’s families is the final phase of the film.

With a mature and level- headed approach to his character, Jr NTR carries the film effortlessly as he is the pivot around which the entire narrative revolves. Pooja Hegde, for a change, is not the typical hyper heroine one sees in Telugu cinema frequently but lends an assuring feel to her character.

The torchbearer approach to the hero’s persona as he seeks peace and an end to mindless violence is the sensitive touch which Trivikram overlaps on his screenplay, which comes through, by and large, despite a few melodramatic jolts here and there in the second half.