Koratala Siva’s ‘Devara’ has a spirited NTR Jr. trying to make something watchable out of a bland screenplay

There are interesting ideas. But the translation from concept to execution leaves a lot to be desired. The film looks grand on the big screen, but that’s about all. The rest of this review may contain spoilers…

Devara marks the return of NTR Jr. as a solo hero after Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava, in 2018 – and as if to make up for lost time, we get a double role. Devara is the father, and Vara is the son. At the concept level, the way these two characters have been imagined is excellent. Devara is a pirate, working with Bhaira. (Saif Ali Khan looks ill-at-ease in this villainous role.) More importantly, Devara is a leader. He lays down the law that will be followed by the four islands, the four clans that co-exist in this watery universe. Vara comes in much later, and he is the opposite of his father: a coward, who prefers staying in the shadows as opposed to taking a stand. So again, at just the concept level, there is something to keep us intrigued. For instance, we know for sure that Vara cannot be who he appears to be – but who is he, really?

But in taking this concept to the execution level, the screenplay by director Koratala Siva fails to deliver. There are at least three interesting twists. If someone told you about them, you’d say “wow”. But when we see these scenes on screen, they are bland. Without getting into too much detail, it is never clear why a major character should die. And when you realise who killed this person, we should get goosebumps – but the scene is as flat as it can get. The growing differences in opinion between Devara and Bhaira, the slow shifting of allegiances, Bhaira’s decision to raise an army, the big reveal about Vara, the bigger reveal about Devara, the supposed shocker of an ending that paves the way for Part 2 – everything is so ordinarily done. The ideas are big, but the writing and the execution don’t match up. Only cinematographer Rathnavelu gets into the spirit of Devara, with a series of rich, mythical images.

The screenplay is very convoluted. “This is the story of sea turning red with blood,” goes an early line. But the opening is utterly generic. We start with a meeting where they decide to catch a gangster, and then we spend so much time with the cop that someone who doesn’t know Indian cinema might think that he is the protagonist. Yes, all of us who love masala cinema wait for the hero-intro shot, but surely we shouldn’t be made to wait this long! But some decent action scenes follow: one on a ship, one on the beach. Devara is conflicted when he realises that he is smuggling weapons that could kill. Fair enough! But we are never told why they took up this profession in the first place, when they could have been fishermen. What caused the son of a freedom fighter to turn into a pirate?

When big, interesting questions like these are left unexplored, you know the film is just going to be a hero-worship vehicle. There’s a nice superhuman bit with containers on a cliff. There’s a whistle-worthy image with blood and the moon. There is a half-interesting plot point around the annual Ayudha Puja celebration. But nothing is allowed to build and explode. Janhvi Kapoor is Vara’s love interest. There could have been a nice running gag about her indecision about Vara’s bravery, because at times he seems to be a hero and at other times the man is a zero. But the makers are content to use her just for the glamour quotient. Anirudh’s Chuttamalle song is catchy, but that’s about all in the romance department. The love angle is one of the staples of our cinema, and it’s tragic when even this basic emotion struggles to get through.

NTR Jr. is solid in his two roles, though as always, the writing puts a cap on the performance level. Look at this actor in RRR and look at him here, and you will see the difference. Devara is certainly watchable, especially with its visuals, but it suffers from predictability and a certain lack of the “wow” factor. The other issue is this insistence on two parts, which necessitates certain events to be prolonged until the “interval twist” and other events to be converted into climactic cliffhangers. As a one-part movie, Devara might have felt tighter, but then again, this is a project and not a piece of cinema. Whatever you felt about RRR, there was no doubt that the makers were pushing the boundaries of commercial storytelling. Devara, on the other hand, is content to settle for low-hanging fruit, and give the fans what they want. Given the film this premise could have resulted in, that’s a real pity.