The Hindi dubbed version of the Vijay Deverakonda-starrer Telugu blockbuster “Dear Comrade” has crossed 250 million views on YouTube, and the film’s lead actress Rashmika Mandanna is naturally elated.
“The fact that the Hindi dubbed version of the film has crossed 250 million views on YouTube is no surprise because I think it deserves it. It’s a story of the people and it’s genuine and our audience can see it. It is extremely heartwarming to see audiences all over the country shower their love on the film. ‘Dear Comrade’ has given me so much as an actor and as a person,” gushed Rashmika.
She claims the Bharath Kamma directorial will always be close to her heart. “I could never really say this anywhere but ‘Dear Comrade’ till date has very special place in my heart. The preparation, the people, the shooting process, the experiences and the people mean so much to me. I don’t think I can put it in words.”
She adds: “Every time I watch a song or something from that film it makes me tear up and I mean this in the most positive way possible.”
Rashmika will soon make her Bollywood debut in “Mission Majnu”. The actress will also be seen in the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer “Goodbye”.
After his latest release Dear Comrade received mixed response, Vijay Deverakonda has now become precarious and taking it easy. Vijay is said to be aware about the negativity around him and his films that have been hitting him for a while. The Arjun Reddy actor is said to be unhappy about it and is getting restless about this fact. Sources tell us that Vijay is normally a person who wouldn’t bother about all these, but this time around, it has affected him a lot since Dear Comrade did not do as well as he expected it to.
Vijay will also team up with Puri Jagannadh who is back in the winning race after his recent release iSmart Shankar. Puri is known for taking on his critics head on and answering them unabashed and Vijay will look to do the same with their collaboration.
Dear Comrade has ended up its run worldwide with a distributor share of 21.50 Cr (all versions). Distributor share of the Telugu version is around 20 cr. After a decent first weekend the film has crashed on weekdays and it didn’t pick up after that. The film has done best in Overseas & Nizam as the recovery is 85 percent & 75 percent respectively. It has done worse in more B,C centres dominated area like Ceeded where the recovery is just 35 percent.
Bollywood top filmmaker Karan Johar watched Vijay Devarakonda’s Dear Comrade in a special screening and decided to remake the film in Hindi. There are speculations that Karan Johar paid Rs 6 crores to acquire the remake rights of the film which is untrue. Vijay Devarakonda reprising the role in Hindi too is not true as the actor did not offer any such commitment. Karan Johar was always keen to introduce actors like Prabhas and Vijay Devarakonda to Hindi audience as they gained enough stardom.
Now with Dear Comrade’s poor show down South and Vijay Devarakonda not ready to play his role in the remake, Karan Johar decided to shelve the project. Karan Johar wanted to share the profits of the remake to Mythri Movie Makers and no agreements have been inked as of now. Hence, Karan Johar would focus on other projects as the remake of Dear Comrade would make no sense as of now.
Dear Comrade has crashed on weekdays as the film has come to deficits in the majority of the areas by Wednesday. The film has collected a worldwide distributor share of 20.45 cr by the end of its first week. After a decent weekend, the film has performed very poorly on weekdays. This is the second-highest first-week share for the hero behind Geetha Govindam which has collected 38.80 cr share. The film has done best in Nizam & Overseas as the recovery in these areas is more than 70 per cent & 80 per cent respectively. The film will end up as a disaster.
Released worldwide in four different languages, Dear Comrade has made its name as an emotional family entertainer. The film has been receiving acclaim for displaying a beautiful love story of two strong characters.
Debutant Bharat Kamma has succeeded in making us feel heart rendered. Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna struck a chord with the audience as they acted brilliantly.
Dear Comrade is running towards $1 Million collections at the USA Box Office.
Dear Comrade has crashed on its first Monday as the film has collected a distributor share of 1 Cr taking 4 days total to 13.60 Cr. The film has literally crashed everywhere except Nizam where it is benefitted by bonalu holiday. Many centres in Andhra Pradesh have seen deficits or just recovered rents. Ceeded distributor is going to face more than 50 percent loss. The film will go further down today with day share could be less than 50 lakhs as there is no advantage in Nizam unlike yesterday.
Dear Comrade has a decent weekend worldwide as the film has collected a distributor share of 18.85 Cr . After a good opening day in Telugu States the film was moderate on second day and fell flat on Sunday with some territories going down and some showing little growth. Best numbers for the film came in Nizam with more than 60 Percent recovery so far whereas ceeded is the least with just 30 percent recovery. Outside Telugu States the film has done average business wth recovery just about 40 percent so far. The film is decent in Overseas as it has good opening but fell flat on Saturday & dropped on Sunday. Today there is holiday in Telangana which will boost the collections in Nizam but it’s going to be very crucial for the film in Andhra Pradesh.
Vijay Devarakonda’s recent offering Dear Comrade turned out to be a boring feast and the film received a mixed response from the audience. The runtime turned out to be the biggest barrier for Dear Comrade. The film lasted for 2 hours 50 minutes and the second half of Dear Comrade looked dragged and slow-paced. The makers chopped off 13 minutes from the film and the trimmed version was screened from last evening.
The Canteen Song which impressed the youth wasn’t present initially and it is now added in the movie. Dear Comrade opened with a bang but the weekend numbers are not remarkable because of the poor word of mouth. Bharat Kamma directed Dear Comrade and Vijay Devarakonda, Rashmika Mandanna are the lead actors. Mythri Movie Makers produced Dear Comrade.
Even before the release of Vijay Devarakonda’s Dear Comrade, top Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar acquired the remake rights of the film. After Arjun Reddy remake (Kabir Singh) turned a huge money-spinner, there has been a huge demand for the remake rights of Vijay Devarakonda’s films. Karan Johar between stiff competition shelled out Rs 6 crores for the remake rights of Dear Comrade.
Though several top filmmakers were in the race for the remake rights of Dear Comrade, most of them backed out after they heard the figure Rs 6 crores. Karan Johar announced the project after a special screening. The lead actor and technicians are yet to be finalized. Dear Comrade that released on Friday across all the South Indian languages received a mixed response from the audience. Vijay Devarakonda and Rashmika Mandanna played the lead roles in this romantic drama directed by Bharat Kamma.
Dear Comrade has a moderate second day in Telugu States as the film has collected a distributor share of 2.90 Cr. Two days total of the film stands at 9.74 Cr. The film has good occupancies in A centres on second day, especially multiplexes but the collections have come down B,C centres. There is a drop of 45 percent from opening day (only worth shares). The film should show some jump today as even mass centres will come on board today.
Vijay Devarakonda has once again proved his capability at the US box office as his latest film Dear Comrade notched up half a million dollars gross in less than two days. The intense drama, directed by Bharat Kamma, opened on a strong note with $ 300K from its Thursday premiers. This is the second-best opener for Vijay Devarakonda after Geetha Govindham ( $403K) and third-highest premiers of 2019 after Maharshi and NTR Kathanayakudu.
After a fairly good start from premiers, Dear Comrade collected $ 157K on Friday and joined the million-dollar club by Saturday morning. The film needs a strong Weekend to put buyers in a safe zone. Vijay’s craze in overseas will be put to test because the film received below par reviews and word of mouth. If Dear Comrade can perform well despite the weak talk, Vijay can definitely be termed as one of the reliable actors of the current generation at the box office. He earned a solid fan base in the US after his previous films set the cash registers ringing with sensational box office run.
Dear Comrade has taken a good opening in Telugu States as the film has collected a distributor share of 6.75 cr. This is the highest opening ever for the hero Vijay Deverakonda. This also fifth-highest opening of 2019 as it fell behind iSmart Shankar which has collected 7.59 cr a week back. The film got by affected a bit by rains in Krishna, east & west areas. The film is carrying mixed reports among the audience and the weekend is going to be very crucial as it needs to do as much as possible.
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
Tollywood young sensation Vijay Devarakonda seems to be earning all the makings to be labelled as a star hero soon. He has already formed a strong fan base among younger generation audience. In terms of pre release business, he is slowly catching up with star heroes because his films are being sold for solid prices all over. With every film his market is improving by leaps and bounds not only in Telugu states but also in neighbouring states.
In overseas too, Vijay is turning out to be a crowd puller on par with tier-1 heroes. His Friday release Dear Comrade is set for a strong opening in USA on Thursday premiers. As per trade updates, the pre sales of Dear Comrade are super solid in all overseas locations and the trend suggests that the film might notch up more than $ 300K from premiers alone. With back to back hits and diverse roles, Vijay earned good reputation among audience in overseas. So, the pre sales are very promising.
The impressive promos and hit music album generated good buzz in audience.If the film manages to garner hit talk from premiers, it will definitely have a strong first weekend in overseas. Vijay’s previous films Pelli Choopulu, Arjun Reddy and Geetha Govindham emerged as blockbuster hits in overseas. So, the expectations on Dear Comrade are quite high.
6.80 Cr
