Movie: Tiger Nageswara Rao
Genre: Biographical - Action - Drama
Cast: Ravi Teja, Nupur Sanon, Gayatri Bharadwaj, Anupam Kher, Murali Sharma, Jisshu Sengupta and Others
Director: Vamsee
Produced By: Abhishek Agarwal
Music: G V Prakash Kumar
Cinematography: R Madhie
Runtime: 181 Minutes (3hrs 01min)
Story
DSP Vishwanath Sharma (Murali Sharma) gets a call from Delhi and he is asked to come immediately. A special flight and taxi are arranged for him to reach IB Office in Delhi. As he reaches the office, he meets an IB officer Raghavendra Rajput (Anupam Kher) along with other key officials in the Indian government waiting for Sharma. Confused Sharma asks Rajput why he was called for this sudden meeting that too on a special flight and Rajput says there is a threat of robbery at PM's house and the threaten is from Tiger Nageswara Rao (Ravi Teja). Who is Tiger Nageswara Rao? Why did he threat to rob at PM's house? Is there any bigger agenda for this? This forms the rest of the story.
Artiste Performances
Ravi Teja is an apt choice for this role. The actor gets into the shoes of Tiger Nageswara Rao and carries the role with utmost conviction and seriousness. He is absolutely impressive with the negative shade he plays and carries every emotion rightly, giving a marvellous performance.
Anupam Kher is an added asset to the movie. He gets a key role and he is impressive. Murali Sharma too has done a great job. Nasser is superb in his role.
Jisshu Sengupta as the baddie is tough and plays his role pretty well. Hareesh Peradi and Sudev Nair too are good in their roles.
Nupur Sanon is Tiger's love is decent. Gayatri Bharadwaj has done a good job. She emotes well and brings an emotional depth in the second half.
Renu Desai in her small role is OK. The rest of the cast have done their part.
Plus Points
Ravi Teja's Performance
Introduction scene
All Heist episodes
Auction chair scene
Elevations and Mass Moments
Interval episode
Factory fight
Tiger Nageswara Rao Intension reveal
Climax
Visuals and Production Values
Background Score
Drawbacks (Which I Felt)
Runtime
Dragged scenes in second half
Inconsistent narration
Analysis
The movie starts off with a meeting scene of Government officials in Delhi to take counter-measures and tighten the security for the PM's house. This scene sets the tone of the movie perfectly.
Nageswara Rao's introduction scene is terrifically narrated. With Murali Sharma elevating the character and scene running in line with the dialogue is superbly shown on screen. The train heist stands as one of the major highlights. This scene establishes the intelligence of Nageswara Rao and his braveness while he does a heist.
After the heist scene, The narration shifts to the childhood of Nageswara Rao. The director neatly establishes the beginning point of why and how he became a dacoit.
The auction scene is yet another highlight. The director utilizes this scene to the fullest to show the determination of Nageswara Rao to do anything to get what he desires. This scene has won a lot of applause and whistles. Veedu song comes up and it is awesome. The rise of Tiger Nageswara Rao is shown in a fan-pleasing way elevating the character.
The pacing drops a bit while narrating the Love track between Nageswara Rao and Sara. A little trimming here could have made things better. There is a mass warning in between that covers it all up. A conflict point in the love track is narrated effectively and we as the audience will feel for the characters.
Here comes a prison escape scene shown excellently. The director again aligns the dialogues and visuals, narrating it in a way that will leave the audience with goosebumps. The movie progresses towards the pre-interval and this episode is a banger.
The PM house heist comes into play and the director makes sure to give the audience an edge-of-the-seat experience. The elevation perfectly lands, making it a perfect and solid interval bang setting stage for an exciting second half.
After an interesting and intriguing first half, the narration starts getting inconsistent in the second half. The second half starts off with a mind-blowing sequence of Nageswara Rao killing goons in a factory. This sequence was choreographed in such a way that the audience feel that a tiger broke lose, is hunting violently. Ravi Teja nails it in this episode and he kills everyone like a wild beast. It is spine-chilling, violent and terrific.
After an extraordinary factory sequence, the director drives the movie onto an emotional path introducing the second love track. Though this track and the character add the required emotional quotient to the movie and Gayatri gives a good performance, the narration falls flat for this track.
Renu Desai gets to play a crucial role that brings a major change in Nageswara Rao's life. Though this character is important from story perspective, the movie feels overstuffed as there are already so many characters.
A Key scene where Nageswara Rao's reason of turning into Dacoit and reason for him Targetting the PM's house is told. The whole sequence is narrated in a convincing way and justifies the character of Nageswara Rao.
An Intense action sequence comes in the Climax and movie ends on an emotional note.
Editing could have been better as the runtime feels like a issue at times. Trimming a few minutes could have made the impact better and the movie more racy. Production Values are an added advantage to the movie. Visuals are stunning. Cinematography played a crucial role in taking us to the old times and creating an atmosphere according to the tone of the proceedings which worked in favour of the movie.
Music by G V Prakash Kumar is excellent. Songs are well presented on screen but the BGM keeps the drama going on next Level. Especially The factory fight, Mass Moments and heroism scenes are superbly elevated.
Director Vamsee has done an excellent job with the subject he chose to explore. His narration style is great where he chose to show the intelligence and the way Nageswara Rao did Heists. Then he takes the narrative deep into the roots of Nageswara Rao's life and the reason for him turning into a Dacoit, His plan behind targetting The PM's house for a heist and the bigger cause he is fighting for. The movie has its flaws and hiccups but Vamsee has succeeded in giving audience an Engaging and mass experience into the Life of Stuartpuram Nageswara Rao A.K.A. Tiger Nageswara Rao.
Final Word
Tiger Nageswara Rao is a Biographical action Drama. It's been a trend lately that movie makers are exploring the lives of some great people, True events and its a good thing. Vamsee too has chosen to explore a biopic but of a well known thief from Stuartpuram. It's a tough job to narrate a biopic that goes well with everyone but Vamsee did an excellent job in balancing the story of Nageswara rao with the required commercial aspects. Leaving the Inconsistent narration and some dull moments here and there, Tiger Nageswara Rao ends up as Satisfying Mass Action Drama.
Bottom-line: Tiger Nageswara Rao - Falters Party but Roars Majorly!
Note: This is my take on the movie. That is why I am not rating the movie. I respect each and every movie. Making people read my review and influencing them to form an impression of a movie before watching the movie is never my intention. I am a Movie lover too. This is just to express my view on the movie. 😊
Review by a Movie Lover