Review: Guru – Venky & Ritika pack a POWERFUL punch

Cast: Venkatesh, Ritika Singh

Director: Sudha Kongara

Producer: S Sashikanth

Banner: Y Not Studios

Music Director: Santosh Narayanan

Tollywood has a special corner for sports drama in its heart. Well, now Victory Venkatesh is set to scorch the screens with a sports flick, Guru. It is one of the most anticipated movies simply coz it promises to tell a strong and interesting story. Does it deliver on that account? Here is what we have to say. Read on

Story:

Adithya (Venaktesh) is a snarly, embittered coach of Women Boxing who has trouble keeping his tempers down. He used to always clash with the head coach (Zakir Khan), who had ended his playing career by foul means. Using the alleged reason of a fake sexual harassment case, the head coach transfers Aditya to Vizag, which is said to be the weakest boxing zone.

However, there Aditya meets another brilliant boxing genius in Rameshwari alias Ramudu (Ritika Singh), a poor girl who sells fish and is also a Mohammed Ali fan (a very important ex machina).

Only Adithya spots and believes the natural boxing talent in this most ziddi and adamant girl and offers to train her putting his name and career at stake. However, his intention and training methodology is quite misunderstood by everyone including Ramudu who eventually fails to live up to Adi’s expectations and embarrasses him on the big day.

What pain did the Guru, his dearest student and their mission went through and how did they triumph forms the rest of the story.

Positive Points:

The film’s main strength lies solely on the strong performances of the lead actors. The usually likeable Venkatesh transforms himself totally into a rugged look and strong boxer, someone who you never want to be your coach, by the way. In his first scene, where he appears bare bodied.

He also conveys a lot of anguish and emotions through his eyes, especially in the last scene. But the film’s real scene stealer is the newcomer, Ritika Singh. The makers must be lauded for casting an actress who is proficient in MMA, and this shows in her performance. If they had cast a popular actress in the role, the film would have totally fallen flat.

However, she needs to contain her expressions a bit, as she tends to over-express herself in a few scenes. There is no single dull moment in the 116min drama due credits to the brisk and content driven narrative. The last 20mins of the film could engross you whatsoever – that’s already a good hint of success. Santosh Narayanan’s music and background score were value additions to this Telugu remake.

Sudha Kongara’s (the director) improvisation in tweaking the lead role (Adithya) close to Venkatesh’s body language without actually compromising on the original is praise-worthy. She managed to pull of some good dialogues which also add value to the narrative. Apart from the above, Guru guarantees you a good story that you often see on Telugu celluloid.

Negative Points:

An enhanced way of executing emotions and treatment could have placed the film in the next horizon. A sudden romance feels forced, there are needless songs and surprising lack of twists!

Only a song is used to depict Venky’s ascension to being a National Champion. There are various sports drama cliches like losing to one opponent badly and then winning against the same foe in a do or die match

Verdict:

GURU is definitely a good one-time watch and the narrative along with the performances makes it a worth watch! For all those, who have watched the original version earlier, now watch Telugu remake for the electrifying performances of Venkatesh and Ritika Singh.

 Rating: 4/5