Dear Comrade Review

Flashback ends with Interval !Dear Comrade Review

Telugu360 Rating: 2.75/5

Tollywood heartthrob Vijay Deverakonda is now coming up with a college drama titled Dear Comrade. He is playing a student leader in this youthful romantic entertainer which stars Rashmika Mandanna as the leading lady. The refreshing trailers with college backdrop and hit music album have set up good expectations on the film.

Let’s find out if Dear Comrade will further Vijay’s stardom or not. Here is the detailed review

Story :

Chaitanya alias Bobby ( Vijay Deverakonda) is an aggressive student leader with communist ideology at Kakinada university. His radical approach towards society’s problems often bring him troubles. Aparna Devi alias Lilly ( Rashmika ) is a state level cricketer and neighbor to Bobby in Kakinada.

As you can guess, love blossoms between them but given the aggressive nature of Bobby ,Lilly requests him to calm down and stay peaceful in life. While she is dual minded about marrying him , a serious issue happens to her career and personal life as well. How she overcomes the issue with the help of Bobby is rest of the story.

Analysis :

First half opens with introductory scenes to encash Vijay’s image. When actual story takes off as flashback , Hero Chaitanya ( Vijay D ) has been shown as a grandson of a communist leader ‘Comrade Suryam‘. Living up to the legacy , Chaitanya is a communist student leader in the university. Given the premise, there is good scope to bring some novelty into the film. One expects hero to take up different issue(s) in the society, but all he does is beating up roadside romeos etc. Thus the core characterization mellows down in initial phase itself. To entertain the audience, loverboy role comes out when Aparna ( Rashmika ) joins him as neighbor. The chemistry between the lead pair is appealing, enhanced with cool melodious songs like ‘ Nee Neeli kannulloni aakasame ‘ ‘ Kadalalle veche kanule ‘. Overall, the first half ends on average note.

In Second half , backdrop shifts to Kashmir for a while, then completely to Hyderabad. ‘ Oh Kala laa .. ‘ song is superb. From this point, the story is focussed on Lilly alias Aparna Devi’s (Rashmika) hurdles in career. Present day’s burning issue #MeToo , Sexual harassment at work place are taken up. Till the end it is about how hero helps heroine on this aspect.

Debutante writer, director Bharath Kamma has written a message oriented story , TRIED TO execute it in a realistic manner. In the process of being realistic , he ended up as a slow paced narrator who missed the required cinematic magic in the screenplay. The scenes often appeared dull.

Story tries to be progressive , romantic and message oriented all three at a time without catering any single element satisfactorly. The final output of the script is one that had lost the original flavor.

Production values by Mythri , Big Ben Cinemas are excellent. This film scores good as well on technical values as well. Justin Prabhakaran’s soothing tunes and background music are a plus. Sujith Saarang’s cinematography is good especially in Kashmir episodes.

Performances :

Vijay Deverakonda stands out yet again with his performance as Bobby .There are few scenes designed only to bank on his image, he excelled. Rashmika handles first half super comfortably , in second half where the story is heroine oriented he did just okay. Shruti Ramachandran who played Rashmika’s sister is good looking girl for such roles, acted well.

Positives :

• Three Melodious Songs
• Chemistry between the lead pair
• Vijay D , Rashmika’s Image matching scenes

Negatives :

• Serious themed film end to end
• No creativity nor freshness in the script despite being from debutante
• Script that restarts itself multiple times
• Dragged second half

Verdict :

Dear Comrade is an average film with no solid positive takeout points. Vijay’s charishma , Vijay – Rashmika’s chemistry and three songs are the saving grace for this film. First half is passable and cannot be said the same for second half. Overall , a film that TRIED many things but couldn’t achieve what it is supposed to be.

Telugu360 Rating: 2.75/5

Director: Bharat Kamma
Writer: Bharat Kamma
Stars : Vijay Deverakonda, Rashmika Mandanna, Shruti Ramachandran
Music by Justin Prabhakaran
Cinematography Sujith Sarang
Edited by Sreejith Sarang
Production Mythri Movie Makers , Big Ben Cinemas